Artificial Intelligence is now gaining attention globally as it evolves in a manner that is amazing yet baffling and somewhat, a bit scary with all the movies that come with it.
Director Till from World Intellectual Property Organization, Division of Artificial Intelligence Policy has invited me to participate on the WIPO’s public consultation on artificial intelligence (AI) and intellectual property (IP) policy I am honored of course and my science background specifically instrumentation engineering brings me back to where I was studying years back when we were doing computer programming as one of our subjects in Chemical Engineering at Saint Louis University.
Before, we were taught to make programs that could automatically compute data by using chemical equations so we can arrive at a given output through the use of Turbo C. I learned that by using right character combinations, we can arrive at an output that involves unimaginable amount of data in a very short period of time.
When I was taking my Masters in International Business Law at Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, our professor in Trade and Investment Law, caught my attention when he told us that Artificial Intelligence in the form of robots could actually talk to each other. Then we talked about the impact of these robots to Trade and Investment but we only did that in a short period of time as we have other topics to discuss which made sense with all the problems in the world as regards trade and investment and the looming trade war between China and the US at that time. Now, I realize that maybe he wanted us to write about AI as our thesis but nobody got the hint including me.
How Artificial Intelligence Evolved
Artificial Intelligence was but myth, fiction and speculation in the 19th century and the great philosophers and mathematicians have studied and formulated logical and structured methods on how people think. Nonetheless, during those days, they were all but hypotheses and theories that need to be applied functionally through science. In the 20th century, there was a breakthrough through in Turing’s machine that captured effectively the essence of abstract manipulation that broke the massive codes during world war II. By then, they could prove that human’s thought and plans can be calculated and predicted through the use of machines.
In 1940’s and 50’s, scientists conceptualized the study of artificial intelligence and founded it in 1956. From then on, years after Darmouth conference, computers were solving mathematical problems and even learning English. Funding poured down subsequently.
Meanwhile, in 1967, Waseda University, Japan had developed a humanoid robot or android, the WABOT-1 which can walk with the lower limb, grip and transport objects with hands through the use of tactile sensors and external receptors and speak through an artificial mouth.
However, 1974-1980 was considered as AI winter due to financial setbacks.
In 1980, AI was once again revived through “expert systems”adopted by corporations and the extensive funding of Japanese government to their 5th generation computer. Expert systems relied on the expert knowledge that they contain.
“On 11 May 1997, Deep Blue became the first computer chess-playing system to beat a reigning world chess champion, Garry Kasparov.”
In 2005, a robot created at Stanford won the DARPA Grand Challenge when it drove autonomously for 131 miles long in an unknown desert trail.
And so on, to say the least.
MODERN ERA
As a practitioner coming from a developing country, I was not aware about the intricacies and advancement of AI until I came across data and big data management. This big data can be accessed, analyzed and synthesized by the AI’s which are made initially by brilliant people. The AI’s capacity depends on how intelligent the creator is.
Artificial Intelligence have been intertwined into our society a long time ago which we made more powerful by feeding a lot of information or data available online, after all the programs and industrial instrumentation that we, humans have created.
This now comes into mind the war of information gathered from big data and how credible they are. In business, data is also important if not essential. Business owners use data in all fields from the inception, operation and thriving or succeeding into this competitive world, just by the protection of #IntellectualProperty alone through trade secrets. AI’s, in some ways or another, can gather data from different platforms and media such as cameras, hidden or not, pictures, emails, news and others. AI,s can analyze information, synthesize and produce a product or an output.
Take for example the search engines and locator, through AI, authorities can pin point an individual’s exact location, activities and similar information. These, without our conscious knowledge, are being done by an AI.
OBSERVATION
No matter what, it is a fact and the truth that AI’s exist and they greatly affect our lives. We might delay the process of handling AI, head-on, through laws, rules, regulations, and directives but we cannot deny the fact that AI’s exist.
Now, in a lot of jurisdictions, the work of AI cannot be registered in IPO’s. However, how can we monitor and assess the advancement of these powerful tools, inventions, or creations if they cannot be registrable in any government office? How can we develop further, #share the good news, and make people be well aware of the dark world of AI?
FiPa Legal Consulting 