AI And Patent Law: Can AI Be An "Inventor"?

As technology surrounding artificial intelligence ("AI") continues to improve, so does its capacity for increasingly complex tasks. In fact, some AIs have become so advanced that they now have the capacity to conceptualize and create inventions.

In Canada, inventions that are new, useful and non-obvious can be afforded patent protection. Under the patent system, in exchange for inventors disclosing their inventions to the public, they are afforded a 20-year monopoly from the time of filing, during which time they have the exclusive right to practice the invention. In the normal course, the inventor who conceives of the invention has the right to apply for and be a named inventor of the patent. However, when the invention is conceived of by AI, it challenges this system, and begs the interesting question: can an AI qualify as an inventor of a patent?