AI: Test what you know

An AI application can write lyrics and then put them to music before creating beautiful advertisements to attract customers to buy its song on the internet.

An AI application provides friendly chats for lonely people.

An AI algorithm is used to decide which prisoners should be granted parole.

An AI application can merge two images seamlessly so that it seems that two events happened at the same time and in the same place.

An AI algorithm constantly collects data on a person’s social media activities to analyse their personality traits and preferences, and then chooses which advertisements to present to them.

A General Practitioner connects to an AI device on a cloud to present images of a patient’s eye, taken with a special camera. The AI device analyses the image to give a diagnosis on the presence or absence of Diabetic Retinopathy disease (source: based on information in https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-permits-marketing-artificial-intelligence-based-device-detect-certain-diabetes-related-eye#:~:text=The%20U.S.%20Food%20and%20Drug,in%20adults%20who%20have%20diabetes.) 

An AI driver uses sensors and data about traffic rules and conditions to drive a car without human oversight (Source: Based on information in Abbott 2022, p. 2).

An AI tool is fed big data on two-dimensional amino acids. It then predicts three-dimensional structure of proteins, having found and analysed patterns in the data at a very fast speed (Source: Based on information in Abbott 2022, p. 2).

1. In a liberal society, IP rights need to be justified before being granted. They can promote innovation but if carried out through politically motivated market interventions, they can also cause harm to society. IP protection for AI outputs, therefore, might be justified in a few cases after consideration but not on a wholesale basis.

2. The rapidity and scale of music that can be churned out by AI applications in the ‘style’ of famous artists takes the possibilities for ‘unjust enrichment and free-riding’ off the back of famous artists to a whole new level. Law-makers should protect artists from this violation of their IP (based on O’Connor 2022, p. 80).

3. If certain conditions were changed so that AI models became more explainable, IP protection for them would benefit everyone. First, the owner could stop others from making commercial use of them without permission. Second, the public would gain knowledge from the explanation of the disclosed invention (based on Deltorn 2022, p. 111).

4. The Berne Convention on copyright refers to human creation. This is not likely to cover creations made by AI authors. Moreover, normally the term of copyright protection is linked to the the life of the author, and IP laws make references to the author’s nationality, which also excludes IP protection for creations made by artificial intelligence (based on Frosio 2022, p. 161).