US patent office rules that artificial intelligence cannot be a legal inventor

The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has ruled that artificial intelligence systems cannot be credited as an inventor in a patent, the agency announced earlier this week. The decision came in response to two patents -- one for a food container and the other for a flashing light -- that were created by an AI system called DABUS. Among the USPTO's arguments is the fact that US patent law repeatedly refers to inventors using humanlike terms such as "whoever" and pronouns like "himself" and "herself." The group behind the applications had argued that the law's references to an inventor as an "individual" could be applied to a machine, but the USPTO said this interpretation was too broad. "Under current law, only natural persons may be named as an inventor in a patent application," the agency concluded. The patents were submitted last year by the Artificial Inventor Project.