EFF: Stupid patents are dragging down AI and machine learning

Each month, the patent lawyers at the Electronic Frontier Foundation shine a spotlight on one particular patent they believe is a drag on innovation. EFF lawyer Daniel Nazer has picked out an artificial intelligence patent belonging to Hampton Creek, a San Francisco food-tech company that markets products under the brand name "just." US Patent No. 9,760,834 describes what the company calls its "machine-learning enabled discovery platform" and ways of discovering new ingredients. Other claims borrow from well-known, pre-existing machine-learning algorithms. "Indeed, in our opinion the patent reads like the table of contents of an Intro to AI textbook," Nazer writes.