Ryan Abbott in Nature:
AI’s contributions to research and development might help to solve some of humanity’s oldest challenges, including by finding new treatments for diseases. The patent system must be overhauled.
An AI system is not a legal person, so it cannot (and should not) own property. Our cases have nothing to do with ‘AI rights’ — they are about what rules will maximize the social benefits of AI and minimize its risks.
The main purposes of the patent system are to encourage innovation, the disclosure of inventions that would otherwise be kept as trade secrets and the commercialization of new products. These outcomes could be achieved by allowing patent protection for AI-generated inventions, which would be owned by the AI’s owner, just as the owner of a 3D printer would also own what comes out of it.
More here.