AIPLA: Being smarter about AI

The intersection of AI and IP offers huge potential, but cooperation and dialogue between stakeholders is essential, argues Barbara Fiacco of the American Intellectual Property Law Association.

The role of artificial intelligence (AI) innovations and technologies in business and in the global economy has been a hot topic. This is not surprising. AI-related innovations, like automation and machine learning, have become powerful tools ushering in revolutionary changes in the way people live and work. 

Gartner, the global research and advisory firm, calculated in a 2019 press release that in 2021, AI augmentation of traditional jobs will create trillions of US dollars of business value and save billions of person-hours globally, and analysis by McKinsey in its 2018 discussion paper, “Notes from the AI frontier: Modeling the impact of AI on the world economy”, estimated that AI-based data analytics could add around 16% to annual global GDP by 2030.

In order to realise this potential, the challenges associated with AI development need to be addressed. Specifically, as AI becomes more ubiquitous, it will raise an increasing number of questions about the implications for IP policy and law. One of American Intellectual Property Law Association’s (AIPLA) areas of focus for 2020 and beyond is to continue to serve as a leading voice on IP issues raised by the ongoing development of AI, on both the national and the international stages.