Can AI Be An Inventor? The Debate Around Patents And AI Generated Inventions

A key debate surrounding patents and AI is whether inventions created solely by AI can be patented. The basis of the patent laws in Canada, as well as those in many other countries around the globe, centres around an individual inventor being the first owner of all right, title and interest in the inventor's inventions. If there is no inventor, then there can be no patent.

An inventor is someone whose conception gives rise to a new, non-obvious, useful invention and sets out the conception into a definite shape, configuration or structure. As AI continues to evolve and participate in the inventive process (including but not limited to the use of generative AI tools in drug discovery and development, where AI tools are capable to analyzing vast genomic datasets to identify promising treatment biomarkers), there will be many instances where AI will contribute materially to the inventive process.