Artificial intelligence (“AI”) is a key driver of the fourth industrial revolution. AI systems and machine learning technologies are already having a significant impact on the development, production and sales of a vast range of economic and cultural goods and services.

Inevitably, seeing that AI blurs the boundaries between the physical, digital, and biological worlds, AI intersects with the Swedish and European intellectual property (“IP”) framework at several different points. In fact, the technological evolution brings into question a number of fundamental IP concepts relating to, e.g. IP protection of creative or innovative results generated by intelligent software. In addition, seeing that AI technologies are already affecting many business sectors and are likely to become even more essential to modern life in the future, the IP protection of AI technologies as such will be important to incentivize continued technological research and development. Given how fast AI is evolving, more legal and economic research is needed to ensure that IP law will continue to encourage new technologies, artistic expressions and inventions. Policymakers should discuss and determine whether the current state of IP law, including the humanistic approach to IP protection, meets tomorrow’s needs. Arguably, contemporary IP law may have to be changed or at least supplemented by new rules and principles, to ensure that the law will serve its purpose and remain relevant in the new AI era.