The chapter examines the relationship between AI- generated wealth and IP protection. It examines the existing and potential impact of AI on the economic circuit in terms of wealth creation and redistribution. It also examines the potentially disruptive impact of AI on labor market and social equality. On the basis of such potential impact, it addresses the role of intellectual property norms and the need to re- visit them, on the grounds of AI expanding autonomy and the need for a public compensatory scheme for the disruptions that AI brings in the labor market.
TopIntroduction
Artificial Intelligence- AI- keeps making headlines: the use of implants in the human brain, capable of curing paralysis or types of it;(Regalado, 2021) self- supervised neural networks which will “learn to spot patterns in data sets by themselves, without being guided by labeled examples”, capable of multiple tasks (Heaven 2022); or gene editing with the assistance of AI, for example in order to “manufacture” transplants and cure dieses. (Roach, 2018)
AI, even in its narrow type -ANI- which supersedes our intellectual capacities, albeit in a specific area, and not in all aspects of intelligence constitutes a pioneer force in furtherance of a complete transformation of human life and societies, causing a significant impact in economic terms as well.
Economic development is expected to incorporate cutting- edge technologies based on the expanding autonomy of AI, introducing it into an ever -expanding variety of areas.
Together with the benefits, several risks emerge too. Part of them is of ontological nature- will conscious AI eventually emerge? what will happen to us, humans once general artificial intelligence or super artificial intelligence come into place? - whereas others are of social and economic nature.
Jobs, wealth accumulation and wealth distribution, inequalities are expected to rise if the present economic and social system is allowed to govern the evolution of AI. Of course, contrary to such assumptions, there are techno- optimistic approaches to AI as well: IBM envisaged a quite bright future by suggesting as Simon mentions that “machines should work; people should think”. (Simon, 2018, p. 34)
It constitutes a promising and ambitious slogan, which however would eventually lead to a different social and economic model if it came to be. For the time being, we have to endure a situation where both machines and people work, often in antagonistic terms.
In principle, AI can offer that, provided that it is governed in ways which could guarantee universal access to the wealth that it produces. A critical chain in the link of such ambitions is the re- regulation of Intellectual Property -IP- norms. What is argued in the present chapter is that the expanding autonomy of AI necessitates a new interpretation of IP norms in order to adjust to the differentiated ontology of such technology.
In order to analyze this relationship, first the economic impact of AI is examined in line with is unique ontological characteristics, with the most significant being its autonomous function. Then, the essence of intellectual property norms in relation to the nature of AI is addressed.