Artificial Intelligence And Intellectual Property Protection

I recently had the privilege of moderating a debate at the annual conference for the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada about whether artificial intelligence should be treated as an author/inventor for the purposes of copyright/patent protection. Recognizing that the current statutory framework does not permit this, the debate focussed on the pros and cons of extending copyright and patent protection to AI.

With respect to patents, Dr. Stephen Thaler, the creator of Device for the Autonomous Bootstrapping of Unified Sentience ("DABUS"), has pressed the issue around the globe by filing multiple patent applications naming DABUS as the inventor and claiming that he is entitled to ownership of the patents "by ownership of the creativity machine 'DABUS.'" Patent applications have been rejected in numerous jurisdictions and permitted in a few.¹