I have often wondered about how Artificial Intelligence can be its own person, with money and control, a very scary proposition.

The problem is that ownership can only be assigned to people. Yes, a business or trust can own something, but neither can exist without people controlling them.

But now… Australia has decided that AI can own a patent. That means that AI can get an income, on its own. I can see future court cases arguing that if an AI can receive an income, it must be able to open a bank account, own property and so on.

Robot overlords are not far away.

(Note, a US court said no to an AI system owning a patent)

UPDATE: Ruling overturned in Australia, so currently nowhere lets this happen. In South Africa AI has been provisionally approved… but that just means they haven’t really looked at it yet.