An abject failure of intelligence: intellectual property and artificial intelligence

Abstract

Intellectual property law can only be useful in relation to artificial intelligence, the high watermark of the Information Revolution, if it is entirely reconstructed to move away from its 19th-century doctrinal precepts to something which makes transparent on its face the balancing of the interests of innovators, their competitors and we consumers. To do so it should be replaced, or at the very least supplemented, with a misappropriation law that protects the labour, skill, effort, investment of time and money of persons but makes clear that it is a defence to invest sufficient additional labour, skill, investment of time and money, and that that in itself may give rise to a new protectable right. Whether there is sufficient additional labour, skill, effort or investment of time and money can be determined by the concept of whether there is a transformative use. Regard must be had to whether the defendant added something new, with a further purpose or different character.