The Rise of the Machines? … “And, the name? A…I… Hart … ly”
In the UK, there was a classic TV advert for Yellow Pages, and it focused on a person calling round booksellers and asking for “Fly Fishing, by J.R. Hartly”. For every bookseller, they say that they don’t have a copy, But it ends, though, with him finding the book, and then revealing that it should be posted to “J.R. Hartly”. It was a winner of an advert, as it touched our human soul:
But, with the rise of the machines, could we ever see a day when a machine would be able to claim authorship of a book, the copyright of the creation of original art, or even submit a patent? It would then be a strange world, and where the author of a patent might become “A..I.. Hartly” (sorry, for the pun!).
The machines will then truly take over, and where we could even hand over the whole of the copyright engine and patent system to them — as they could probably do it better than we can. It would be become part of the automation of law and the legal process. Smart contracts could then run the whole thing. It then spirals up, and you know how it all ends …
