Computer Scientist Submits Application To US Supreme Court To Allow AI System To Create Patents

Stephen Thaler, a US computer scientist who filed a patent for AI findings. (photo: linkedin @Stephen Thaler)

JAKARTA - A computer scientist who has conducted a global campaign for patents that includes a discovery created by his artificial intelligence (AI) system, asked the United States Supreme Court on Friday 17 March to consider his case.

Stephen Thaler petitioned the Supreme Court to review the appeal court's decision stating that patents could only be given to human inventors and that its AI system cannot be the creator of the law it generates.

Thaler said in his opinion that AI was used to innovate in areas ranging from drugs to energy, and rejected patents generated by AI "limited the capabilities of our patent system - and hindered Congress's intention - to optimally stimulate innovation and technological advances".

Thaler has said that his DABUS system, which stands for Device for the Autonomous Bootstrapping of Unified Sentience, resulted in a unique prototype for the self-employment holder of the discovery of drinks and reminder lights.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office and Virginia federal court rejected patent applications for the finds on the grounds that DABUS was not a human being. The US Federal Court of Appeal Circuit upheld the decision last year and said US patent laws clearly required inventors to become human.

Thaler told the Supreme Court that laws should not be read to require an inventor to be human.

"Nothing in the text of the Patent Law requires Congress to limit the term 'inventor' - or the word 'individual' in its definition - to natural people only," Thaler said in his petition.

The petition says that laws such as the Patent Act "use broad language intended to accommodate technological changes."

The US Copyright Office also rejected Thaler's copyright application for AI-generated art, which he has appealed to. In a separate dispute, the office also rejected copyright for images created by the Midjourney generative AI system last February.

Thaler also filed DABUS patents in other countries, including the UK, South Africa, Australia, and Saudi Arabia. The British Supreme Court heard the case there earlier this month.