Brave New World

August 4, 2021

A machine has just been granted a patent by the South African government.

Chew on that for a while.

The machine’s inventor says that DABUS (“Device for the autonomous bootstrapping of unified sentience”) came up with the ideas for an emergency beacon with a pulsating light, and a snowflake-shaped beverage container that’s optimized for heat transfer and robotic handling. He didn’t want to take credit for the inventions.

According to David Nicklaus’s column in the Post-Dispatch, this was not a unique situation. Other people have tried to secure patents on behalf of the artificial intelligence that came up with certain inventions, rather than list themselves as the inventors; but patent offices, including that in the United States, have insisted on a human being the patent holder. Looks like that is changing.

(Side note: Who knew there were so many self-effacing inventors out there?)

 

Inventions creating inventions.

 

Brave new world.