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New White House Memorandum on Artificial Intelligence

On October 24, President Biden issued an AI Memorandum, which is a follow up to his Executive Order on AI from a year ago.

Graphic of robotic hand over patent documents

On October 24, President Biden issued an AI Memorandum, which is a follow up to his Executive Order on AI from a year ago.

The Memorandum is 26 pages long, so I will not try to summarize it all in a single posting. Also, the President does not have the authority to make new law. Only Congress can do that.

The policy objectives are what we would expect, including in Sec. 2(a) "First, the United States must lead the world’s development of safe, secure, and trustworthy AI."

In particular, Sec. 3(a) recites "To preserve and expand United States advantages in AI, it is the policy of the United States Government to promote progress, innovation, and competition in domestic AI development..."

An important part of "promoting progress and innovation in AI" involves the U.S. patent system. I was a little surprised to find that the Memorandum does not mention the patent system, and the word "patent" does not appear in the Memorandum at all.

Considering the recognized key role of AI, it seems like the USPTO and Congress should address how to encourage AI development so that the United States "leads the world's development of safe, secure, and trustworthy AI."