5 - Everything Is Obvious

Summary

The impact of artificial inventors is only starting to be felt, but AI’s rapid improvement means that it may soon outdo people at solving problems in certain areas. This should revolutionize not only research and development but also patent law. The most important requirement to being granted a patent is that an invention must be nonobvious to a hypothetical skilled person who represents an average researcher. As AI increasingly augments average researchers, this should make them more knowledgeable and sophisticated. In turn, this should raise the bar to patentability. Once inventive AI moves from augmenting to automating average researchers, it should directly represent the skilled person in obviousness determinations. As inventive AI continues to improve, this should continue to raise the bar to patentability, eventually rendering innovative activities obvious. To a superintelligent AI, everything will be obvious.