Artificial intelligence (AI) has advanced from a tool that assists in data analysis, simulations, and idea generation to more autonomous systems, still on the horizon, capable of generating their own unique inventions. In a new insight, Technology and Innovation Policy Analyst Angela Luna explains that because current patent law does not allow for naming AI as an inventor, it risks limiting AI’s potential by discouraging individuals and companies from using these systems in inventive tasks.

An excerpt:

As AI development advances and becomes an integral part in a wide range of applications and inventive processes, policymakers may need to act before AI further outpaces patent law. Continued U.S. innovation will require a clear and predictable legal environment for the use of AI in research and development, pressing policymakers to reassess, clarify, and possibly redefine patent eligibility and definitions that keeps pace with AI advancement, while preserving the fundamental objective of patent law.

Read the analysis.