Artificial Intelligence, Innovation and Inventorship - Can AI be an Inventor?

Rapid advances in artificial intelligence ("AI") are unlocking enhanced capabilities for machine learning, data interpretation and innovation, whilst also increasingly becoming useful in our everyday lives. AI now plays a key role in drug discovery, the advertisements we see recommended to us online, route suggestions for online mapping platforms, and auto-generated digital content. Recently, this has raised questions for traditional thinking around intellectual property law, with particular implications for patent ownership and invention. The question is – could AI be capable of being considered an inventor? An additional step, that an inventor must be human, was recently put to the test.