Well this is kind of fun. A few people decided to test the bounds of artificial intelligence in society by getting their Neural Networks to create patents.
Now, instead of coming up with something useful to society, like e.g. this artificial grass in video game updates, the patents talked about fractal containers and blinking lights.
The US Patent Office dusted off a bunch of rules and regulations and determined, based on ‘whoever’ and pronouns, that a machine is not a person, and, only a person can apply for a patent. I’m not sure of they relied on Obiter Dicta and Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Co or not, seems kind of obvious to me, not a huge leap from a corporation as a non-person person to an algorithm.
But joking and armchair lawyering aside, this is yet another step along the path to the Bicentennial Man of Asimov fame. Some believe there is a future where machines have rights and are recognised as persons.
Time for our robot overlords to start paying tax I say! You want representation? It comes with taxation.
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