AI systems can’t be named as the inventor of patents, UK’s top court rules

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s Supreme Court ruled that an artificial intelligence system can’t be registered as the inventor of a patent, denying machines the same status as humans. The U.K.’s highest court said Wednesday that “an inventor must be a person” to apply for patents under the current law. The decision was the culmination of American technologist Stephen Thaler’s long-running British legal battle to get his AI, dubbed DABUS, listed as the inventor of two patents. Thaler claims DABUS autonomously created a food and drink container and a light beacon and that he’s entitled to rights over its inventions. Tribunals in the U.S. and the European Union have rejected similar applications by Thaler.