Sen. Marsha Blackburn worries that artificial intelligence would encourage China’s widespread intellectual property theft.
As a first step toward ensuring that Americans are informed, and their data is secure despite the fast growth of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., is urging Congress to enact an internet user privacy standard.
Four Republicans, including Blackburn, comprise the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on intellectual property (IP). Wednesday afternoon, the panel will host a hearing titled “Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Property – Part I: Patents, Innovation, and Competition.”
“We’re going to examine it from an IP standpoint because when you see what China is doing and how they are pressuring individuals from all over the world to come to China and submit their patents with AI, various applications and uses, it is clear that they are pushing this agenda. Additionally, they submitted precisely 1.6 million applications. The speaker said that are more than twice as many applications for AI usage as had been submitted in the US. “We shouldn’t let this issue linger without exploring the threat it poses to our American innovators,” the speaker said.
The senator referenced data from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) that showed China submitted more patents in 2021—more than 1.5 million—than the United States or Europe combined. Additionally, during the last ten years, China has presented roughly 75% of all AI patent applications worldwide.
However, the Chinese Communist Party has long been accused of stealing American intellectual property; Blackburn fears that this practice will only become more sophisticated with AI.
Blackburn said whether they work in the consumables industry, after-market automotive parts, auto electric vehicle component components, or music, I know it’s a cause of annoyance for many of our inventors. The problem is that many individuals are unaware that their products are counterfeit until someone brings anything in for repair, and they discover they didn’t produce this. It is anything that violates a copyright or patent.
When asked what actions Congress should take to protect American intellectual property, especially as China’s AI capabilities progress, Blackburn advised that they begin by ensuring user data is secure online.
“I believe passing a consumer privacy protection standard for online transactions will be the first thing we must achieve. The passage of the bill is required, she stated. “You’re going to have to give the individual the right to protect their information online and to hold it out of that open source, to be able to firewall their information and their use in the virtual space.”
“Secondly, how you manage the patent copyright problem will need to be discussed; we’ll discuss it further because our legislation does not cover those produced by technology. They include those that people submit. We must thus find out that component, Blackburn said.
The hearing on artificial intelligence and intellectual property is set to begin at 3 p.m. today. Senators will hear from tech policy experts and Google and Novartis executives.
