HOW ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE WORKS

AI works by combining large amounts of data with fast, iterative processing and intelligent algorithms, allowing the software to learn automatically from patterns or features in the data. AI is a broad field of study that includes many theories, methods, and technologies, as well as the following major subfields:

• Machine learning automates analytical model building. It uses methods from neural networks, statistics, operations research, and physics to find hidden insights in data without explicitly being programmed for where to look or what to conclude.
• Neural network is a type of machine learning that is made up of interconnected units (like neurons) that processes information by responding to external inputs, relaying information between each unit. The process requires multiple passes at the data to find connections and derive meaning from undefined data.
• Deep learning uses huge neural networks with many layers of processing units, taking advantage of advances in computing power and improved training techniques to learn complex patterns in large amounts of data.

Common applications include image and speech recognition.

• Cognitive computing is a subfield of AI that strives for a natural, human-like interaction with machines. Using AI and cognitive computing, the ultimate goal is for a machine to simulate human processes through the ability to interpret images and speech – and then speak coherently in response.
• Computer vision relies on pattern recognition and deep learning to recognize what’s in a picture or video. When machines can process, analyze and understand images, they can capture images or videos in real time and interpret their surroundings.
• Natural language processing (NLP) is the ability of computers to analyze, understand and generate human language, including speech. The next stage of NLP is natural language interaction, which allows humans to communicate with computers using normal, everyday language to perform tasks.3

A number of science fictions have been made that imagined the world being populated with robots that would do everything for human beings. With advances in AI, the once imagined scenario can turn into reality in the future. Numerous software, machines, etc. are created using AI to make our lives easier in many ways, but the question that arises is who can claim ownership over content created by a machine?

Devoid of any doubt, this is one of the most complex matter. Traditionally, the ownership of copyright in computergenerated works was not in question as the program was simply a tool that supported the creative process, just like a pen and paper. However, today, the computer program is no longer a tool; it actually makes many of the decisions involved in the creative process without human intervention. Artificial intelligence is already being used to generate works in music, journalism, and gaming. These works could, in theory, be deemed free of copyright because they are not created by a human author. As such, they could be freely used and reused by anyone. That would be very bad news for the companies selling the works. There are two ways in which copyright

law can deal with works where human interaction is minimal or non-existent.

• It can either deny copyright protection for works that have been generated by a computer or
• it can attribute authorship of such works to the creator of the program. Feist Publications v Rural Telephone Service Company, Inc. 499 U.S. 340 (1991) which specifies that copyright law only protects “the fruits of intellectual labor” that “are founded in the creative powers of the mind.” Similarly, in a recent Australian case Acohs Pty Ltd v Ucorp Pty Ltd, the court declared that work generated with the intervention of a computer could not be protected by copyright because it was not produced by a human. In Europe, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has also declared on various occasions, particularly in its landmark Infopaq decision (C-5/08 Infopaq International A/S v Danske Dagbaldes Forening) that copyright only applies to original works, and that originality must reflect the “author’s own intellectual creation.”4

The legal system varies across borders. The USA and Germany have in the past made rulings that only those things that have been created by humans can be created and protected by copyright. However, the law is the UK is different.

In Europe the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has also declared on various occasions, particularly in its landmark Infopaq decision (C-5/08 Infopaq International A/S v Danske Dagbaldes Forening), that copyright only applies to original works, and that originality must reflect the “author’s own intellectual creation.” This is usually understood as meaning that an original work must reflect the author’s personality, which clearly means that a

human author is necessary for a copyrighted work to exist.5

In countries like Hong Kong (SAR), India, Ireland, New Zealand and the UK, the authorship is given to the programmer. This approach is best encapsulated in UK copyright law, section 9(3) of the Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act (CDPA), which states:

“In the case of a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work which is computergenerated, the author shall be taken to be the person by whom the arrangements necessary for the creation of the work are undertaken.”6

Furthermore, section 178 of the CDPA defines a computer-generated work as one that “is generated by computer in circumstances such that there is no human author of the work”. The reason behind such provision is to create an exception to all human authorship requirements by identifying the work that goes into creating a program capable of generating works, albeit the creative glint is performed by a machine.