Artificial
intelligence first made appearance in science-fiction books and movies, like the
Metropolis of 1927, in the first half of the 20th century which are
believed to have steered the consciousness of mathematicians, scientists, scholars
and philosophers to the concept of artificial intelligence. The first humanoid
robot, Herbert Televox, was built by Ron Wensley in
1927. Herbert Televox could lift a receiver to accept a phone call, he
could also control simple processes by operating switches according to the
signals it received. Herbert Televox, however, lacked the ability to speak and
was simply humanoid in appearance
has since then advanced in both appearance and abilities. Sofia is a particularly
remarkable creation as she is the first robot to achieve citizenship status
a delicate appearance and is capable of more than 50 facial expressions. AI is
affecting the world’s economy and has become an essential part of the
technology industry as it makes appearance across the world. As machines become
increasingly capable, it is bound to not only rely on Intellectual Property law
but transform Intellectual property concepts, triggering a need for IP law
reforms.
Technology is
advancing at an unparalleled speed. Faster and quicker than we can meet up with
or make preparations for. Generally speaking, Technology and Innovation
intersect with Intellectual Property rights as they confer exclusive rights to
inventions and creations on the inventor or owner of a work, protecting said
works from idea theft or expropriation, consequently encouraging inventiveness
and out-of-the-box thinking. Today, Technologies are advancing beyond what
available Intellectual property provisions can secure. The implication is that
law makers are now faced with an obligation to revisit and modify laws suitable
for the upsurge in discoveries of new technology and knowledge across the
globe.
Artificial Intelligence,
also called Machine Intelligence, is distinct from Natural Intelligence
displayed by humans and animals. Although there is no universally accepted or
all-encompassing definition to the concept, it can either refer to the
intelligence displayed by machines or a discipline of computer science that is
aimed at developing machines and systems, such as robots, that can carry out
tasks and chores normally considered to require human intelligence, such as visual
perception, speech recognition, decision making and translation between
languages. Machine learning and deep learning are two subsets of AI
Is Nigeria ready for
AI? Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Education is making plans to include robotics
and artificial intelligence (AI) in the post-basic and secondary education
curricula in Nigeria
According to the plan, this is aimed at bringing students up to par with 21st
century technology and education standards. This is expected to begin with the
104 federal unity colleges spread across the country’s six geo-political zones.
While we may argue whether or not Nigeria is ready and why, what is important
is that it is time Nigeria keys into AI technology bearing in mind its
potential benefits, how it will help citizens to live better lives, how it will
upshoot her economy, bringing Nigeria to limelight. Recently, the University of
Lagos, in an effort to improve learning and safety in the face of the COVID-19
outbreak took delivery of some robots. Ready or not, it is happening.
AI
and Patents
According to the
World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), since the emergence of
primitive AI in the 1950s, researchers have published over 1.6 million
AI-related scientific publications and filed patent applications for nearly
340,000 AI-related inventions
The impact of AI on Intellectual Property (IP) is circled around patent law and
patent protection of AI technologies
However, more relevant IP concepts that protect AI are Copyright and Trade
secret.
Patent protection
gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or
selling an invention for a limited period of time on the condition that the
patentee will publish an enabling public disclosure of the invention at a
future date. Patent protection is highly valued among AI developers as it gives
the patent owner a monopoly. Hence, competitors who are found to have exploited
the patented AI technology will be ordered by the court to cease the act of
infringement whether or not they had knowledge of the patent or patented
technology at the time of developing their technology. Nonetheless, lack of
knowledge may be relevant to whether the court also awards damages or an
account of profit.
What if inventions
are made by an AI system? According to Stephen Hawking, “…there is no deep
difference between what can be achieved by a biological brain and what can be
achieved by a computer. It, therefore, follows that computers can, in theory,
emulate human intelligence and exceed it”.
Under the United
States Patent Law, inventor is defined as the individual or individuals who
invented or discovered the matter of the invention. Many have argued that the
law’s references to an inventor as an “individual” could be applied to a
machine. However, the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has ruled that
artificial intelligence systems cannot be credited as an inventor in a patent
the same in the United Kingdom and in Nigeria. Hence, patent may be claimed by
the inventor or the owner of the AI system.
AI
and Copyright
Copyright protects
the software programmes which are the “building blocks” of the AI system
computer programs are eligible for copyright protection under literary works
provided that they satisfy the requirement of originality, ownership and
fixation under Section 1 of the Copyright Act. Copyright protection arises
automatically upon creation and extends to the expression of the source code
embodied in the software that underlies the AI technology. In contrast to
patents, a copyright term is much longer (the author’s life plus 70 years) and
copyright protection is cheaper and less strenuous since it is not required
that the documentation be registered
Do AI systems own
copyright in their works? Another facet to this discourse is whether artistic, dramatic,
literary or musical works that are creations of Artificial Intelligence are
protectable under Copyright Law. As AI systems advance, we find them doing
things that ordinarily require human intelligence or creativity. A suitable
example is E-David, a painting robot, who takes pictures with an added camera
feature and making his own decisions, draws original pictures or paintings from
these pictures. According to Section 2 of the Copyright Act, provided that a
work is not copied, has an element of originality and is fixated, it is
protectable. However, the copyright act is silent on whether the author of a
work can be anything other than a human. Seeing as AI machines are yet to be
recognized under Nigerian Laws, they cannot own copyright.
AI
and Trade secrets
Trade secrets is
highly effective in protecting important business information especially from
competitors. Trade secrets trade secrets assist with the non-disclosure of
information, which includes formulae, compilations, programs, methods, techniques,
processes, designs and codes of various AI inventions
which have a quality of intrinsic confidentiality, the secrecy of which is highly
valuable to its owner. They
are enforced through actions for breach of confidence or, if a non-disclosure
agreement or clause exists, breach of contract
Like copyright, Trade secrets require no registration to be protectable;
rather, trade secret protection arises automatically provided that the trade
secret owner can establish that the information is not already in the public
and that if it were disclosed to a competitor, could cause real or significant harm
to the owner of the secret. Trade secret protection can theoretically last
forever, as long as secrecy is maintained and the information is not publicly
known.
With the advent of
AI, computers and machines will potentially create millions of original works
which may not be protectable under Intellectual property laws unless amendments
are made. This defeats the purpose of Intellectual property which is to encourage
ingenuity, protect the production of creative minds and attribute honour to
whom honour is due. Hence, the need for Intellectual property law reforms.
Written by:
Adeniran
Oluwabukunmi.
References
1. A Brief History of Robotics: The Origin of The
Fisrt Humanoid Robot. LUCA Robotics.
2.
Stone, Zara. Everything You Need To Know About Sophia, The World’s First
Robot Citizen. 2017.
3.
Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Property. WIPO.
4.
Oluwanifemi, Kolawole. Nigeria may not be ready to include robotics and
artificial intelligence in its secondary school curriculum. Techpoint.Africa.
February 25, 2020.
5.
Nina, Fitzgerald and Andrew, McClenahan. Introduction to the protection of IP
rights in artificial intelligence. 2019.
6.
Kurzweil, Ray. Intelligent Trademarks. 2008.
7.
John, Porter. US patent office rules that artificial intelligence cannot be a
legal inventor. The Verge. April 29, 2020.
8.
Mayowa, Oluwafunmilayo. Who owns Copyright in an AI Invention? 2019.
9.
Andrea, Jeffries, Emily, Tait and Jason, Garr. Protecting Artificial
Intelligence IP: Patents, Trade Secrets or Copyrights? 2018.
10.
Ijeoma, Olorunfemi and Ikenna, Uwadileke. Artificial Intelligence technology:
Is Nigeria ready? Vanguard. April 22, 2019.