Competition at the Dawn of Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

AI is in a state of perpetual and increasing revolution, with the scale of each change fully eclipsing the last. Although truly sentient machines are science fiction, experts believe society is on the verge of a technological tipping point, making future advancements unrecognizable by today’s standards. This transition may shortly resemble the shift from analog to digital technology — or from personal computing to the Internet — in which, both actively and passively, consciously and unconsciously, willingly and unwillingly, no aspect of our daily lives remains untouched. As we navigate this extraordinary gateway, what types of intellectual property policies will foster the innovation that secures our place at the head of the revolution? At the heart of this issue lies the question of how to manage forms of invention in which a computer participates, or even dominates, the inventive process. The question can be thought of as a matching problem, trying to connect the entity that invented a product, on one side, with the proper allocation of inventor rights on the other. Within the theoretical framework of the patent system, the aim of this matching problem is to incentivize innovation. Specifically, if the group of potential inventors includes both humans and computers, any invention must be either 1) created by humans alone, 2) invented in tandem by humans and computers, 3) invented by computers alone, or 4) “invented” by no neither. The paper examines each aspect of the matching equation, recommending a pathway for optimizing innovation and competition.

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence