Stupid Patent of the Month: Trying to Get U.S. Patents On An AI Program

Only people can get patents. There’s a good reason for that, which is that the patent grant—a temporary monopoly granted by the government—is supposed to be given out only to “promote the progress of science and useful arts.” Just like monkeys can’t get a copyright on a photo,  because it doesn’t incentivize the monkey to take more photos, software can’t get patents, because it doesn’t respond to incentives. 

Stephen Thaler hasn’t gotten this memo, because he’s spent years trying …