Artificial intelligence (AI) has advanced to a point where it will profoundly affect the world.
FREMONT, CA: Artificial intelligence (AI) is a digital frontier that will change the world. In terms of work, life, and production and distribution of goods and services, it will profoundly impact human society. The impact of AI on traditional intellectual property (IP) concepts cannot be overstated. There are no commercial AI-generated music or inventions, but it is expected to define composer, author, and inventor concepts. That has yet to be determined.
AI and IP
The IP system’s fundamental goals have always been to promote new technologies and creative works and establish a sustainable economic foundation for invention and creation. From a purely financial standpoint, there is no reason not to use IP to reward AI-generated designs or products if other goals of the IP system, such as ‘just reward’ and moral rights, are set aside. AI technologies are widely used to define established intellectual property concepts such as patents, designs, literary and artistic works. However, before that, it is necessary to work out the associated rights and obligations. For example, the life sciences generate enormous amounts of valuable data but do not constitute inventions in the traditional sense. Many argue that because data is the bedrock of artificial intelligence, it should be made freely available to facilitate the development of AI and other applications. Data and algorithms raise several fundamental IP issues, such as creating property rights in a constantly changing algorithm. Globally, demand for intellectual property rights continues to outpace economic growth. The IP system is not going away any time soon. It is being used more frequently than ever before. However, new challenges are emerging, necessitating adding a layer of IP rather than replacing the existing system.
Infringement of IP
The flip side is whether AI can own or infringe upon intellectual property. If an AI machine can generate subject matter, who will be held accountable if that subject matter infringes on third-party IP? The issue here is that copyright infringement necessitates physical copying. The author of the copyright-infringing work must have had access to the copyright-protected work. In the case of an AI machine expected to have access to everything on the internet, proving that the infringer had access to the protected work may be significantly easier.