With a plethora of use cases generated from computer-controlled intelligence, the US Supreme Court is hearing a case on whether they can be patented inventors.
Stephen Thaler Fighting for New Generation of Inventors
President of Imagination Engines Inc. Stephen Thaler is continuing the legal battle for his AI creation.
According to a court filing, Thaler has petitioned the Supreme Court to reverse its earlier decision on not allowing AI inventions as patents.
He believes AIs should be given the same privilege of being inventors as humans since there are no explicit restrictions.
While making a case for the innovative technology, Thaler said that AI solutions are increasingly impacting different facets of the global population, ranging from medicine to energy.
Hence, taking a hard stand against them owning patents for their direct inventions would lead to curtailing the patent system’s abilities.
Thaler also pointed out that this would be a direct drawback to the stated intent of the US Congress to optimally stimulate innovation and technological progress in the North American state.
So far, Thaler has launched an AI tool called DABUS, an acronym for Device for the Autonomous Bootstrapping of Unified Sentience.
DABUS has launched The Artificial Inventor Project, an AI-focused publication geared towards increasing AI adoption and invention across the board.
In support of the AI patent tool, Thaler pointed out a statutory definition offered by the US Patent Act, which stated that the individual who made the invention is considered the inventor.
However, the US Patent and Trademark Office has backtracked on its early description and said the definition only applies to a human being.
The Federal Circuit also upheld this decision stating that the AI tool does not have a physical body to be granted a patent right for its inventions.
According to Thaler, these definitions do not work in the context cited by the patent office. He said in the filing that the word ‘inventor’ is based on function and not embodiment.
Also, the word ‘individual’ points to a singular item and not a physical entity.
However, Thaler is not backing down and has applied for patents in several other countries, including the United Kingdom.
AI Wave Sweeping the Global Marketplace
Artificial intelligence may have been a far-fetched concept a couple of years ago, but now several companies are in an AI arms race.
Tech giants like Microsoft, Meta, and LinkedIn have launched AI-facing services in the past few weeks.
In a recent introductory post, Microsoft announced its own AI service called 365 Dynamics Copilot.
The company stated that companies will now have an AI tool that will be interactive and provide assistance across several business functions.
The 365 Dynamics Copilot solution is expected to work as a virtual assistant across sales, service, marketing, operations, and supply chain roles, making it easier for companies to complete mundane tasks while providing their customers with a fully streamlined service across all facets of the business.
LinkedIn has also announced the creation of three AI-powered tools supported by OpenAI’s latest ChatGPT models.
The AI tools focus on profile crafting and writing, creating collaborative articles where experts can contribute and get feedback, and a new AI-powered job description tool.
Joining the arms race, the customer relationship management (CRM) software company Salesforce also announced EinsteinGPT for its lineup of customers.
The company explained that a separate $250 million ecosystem fund would be inaugurated to help AI-facing tech startups deliver needed products.
With so many critical businesses turning to AI, the paradigm for an AI-patented invention seems to be gaining serious momentum.
In no distant future, the likes of Stephen Thaler may win their battle towards enabling AIs to invent and have their solutions used in the real world.