The origin of AI-developed technology is also its shackle. Only humans can be listed as inventors on patent applications, meaning life-saving discoveries made by AI can’t be patented and developed into products angus_dalton
In 2020, a team of MIT researchers used an AI algorithm to search a pool of 100 million molecules for new antibiotics.
“We’re in this sort of legal black hole, where you can’t file a patent because there isn’t a human inventor,” said UNSW AI expert Professor Toby Walsh. Australia became the first place in the world to decide that an AI system could be listed as an “inventor” on a patent last year, before the Federal Court overturned the decision in May.
AI expert Professor Toby Walsh has called for international patent law reform to allow the recognition of non-human inventors.One of the products developed by DABUS is a beacon Thaler dubbed a “neural flame”. It’s a device that maximises the chance of attracting attention in an emergency by flashing in a sequence based on human brain activity. The other invention is a drink container made of a “fractal” material ideal for being handled by prosthetic or robotic hands.