In a world first patent officials in South Africa credited an AI as an inventor – By Futurist and Virtual Keynote Speaker Matthew Griffin

Join our XPotential Community, future proof yourself with courses from XPotential University, connect, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been getting creative for some time now and inventing new things, including everything from new kinds of batteries, computer chips, furniture, and rocket engines, all the way through to new kinds of vehicles and sports apparel, for companies as diverse as Airbus, Amazon, GM, NASA, and Under Armour. But despite this quantum leap recently the US Patent Office declined to credit AI for its inventions. Now that's changed, and in what seems to be a world first Intellectual property (IP) officials in South Africa have made history in a landmark decision to award a patent that names an AI as the inventor. The patent – which was filed by an international team of lawyers and researchers led by the University of Surrey's, Professor of Law and Health Sciences, Ryan Abbott – is for a food container based on fractal geometry.