The emergence of generative Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) is putting computers at odds with creators and raising novel questions about the future of Intellectual Property (“IP”) law. Though scholars are scrambling to anticipate the legal consequences of AI, few have attempted to describe how prevailing tech-philosophies might shape AI regulation via persuasion and/or regulatory capture.
In this paper, I describe one such “techno-optimist” perspective and consider its idealized application to the thorniest issues of AI in IP. In short, how would a legal system influenced by techno-optimism treat issues of copyright and patent law in a world of rapidly accelerating AI? After examining (1) text & data mining (“TDM”) regulations, (2) copyright infringement by AI models, and (3) the patent system & patentability of AI generated innovations, I conclude that a techno-optimist approach to IP law would necessitate diminished data & copyright protections, but have indeterminate if not paradoxical implications for the patent system.
AI, Intellectual Property, and the Techno-Optimist Revolution
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The emergence of generative Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) is putting computers at odds with creators and raising novel questions about the future of Intellectual Property (“IP”) law. Though scholars are scrambling to anticipate the legal consequences of AI, few have attempted to describe how prevailing tech-philosophies might shape AI regulation via persuasion and/or regulatory capture.
In this paper, I describe one such “techno-optimist” perspective and consider its idealized application to the thorniest issues of AI in IP. In short, how would a legal system influenced by techno-optimism treat issues of copyright and patent law in a world of rapidly accelerating AI? After examining (1) text & data mining (“TDM”) regulations, (2) copyright infringement by AI models, and (3) the patent system & patentability of AI generated innovations, I conclude that a techno-optimist approach to IP law would necessitate diminished data & copyright protections, but have indeterminate if not paradoxical implications for the patent system.