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Allow patents on AI-generated inventions — for the good of science

The current global mishmash of rules on whether innovations made using artificial intelligence are patentable impedes AI-rich fields such as drug discovery.
  1. Ryan Abbott

    1. Ryan Abbott is professor of law and health sciences at the School of Law, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK, and adjunct assistant professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, USA.

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When I began the Artificial Inventor Project in 2017, there were essentially no laws on inventions generated using artificial intelligence (AI) for drug discovery and repurposing, for example. But biomedical companies and researchers were already concerned about how patent law would handle such innovations.

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Nature 620, 699 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-02598-2

Competing Interests

R.A. represents Stephen Thaler in the cases discussed in this article on a pro bono basis without any financial interests in the outcome of the cases.

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