Ten Assumptions About Artificial Intelligence That Can Mislead Patent Law Analysis

Abstract

The paper examines a set of assumptions about artificial intelligence, particularly machine learning, often taken as factual premises in discussions on the future of patent law in the wake of ‘artificial ingenuity’. The objective is to draw a more realistic and nuanced picture of the human-computer interaction in solving technical problems than where AI systems autonomously generate inventions. A detailed technical perspective is presented for each assumption, followed by a discussion of specific uncertainties under patent law. Overall, it is argued that none of the posited assumptions on closer examination appears to raise fundamental uncertainty about the appropriateness of the patent system.

Keywords: artificial intelligence; AI-generated inventions; disclosure; evolutionary algorithms; genetic programming; inventive step; inventor; machine learning; obviousness; patent law; patentability