Invented by DABUS

Roundtables about uses cases and network slicing

Milon Gupta
Eurescom

Johannes Gutenberg invented the movable metal-type printing process, Benjamin Franklin invented the lightning rod, and DABUS invented a beverage container. While the first two claims are widely accepted, the third claim has been the cause of a fundamental controversy on who can be an inventor. That is because DABUS is not a human being, but an artificial intelligence machine. And in conventional thinking, a machine cannot be an inventor, only a tool used by a human inventor.

According to the Wikipedia entry for “Inventor”, the matter is clear: “An inventor is a person who creates or discovers new methods, means, or devices for performing a task.” Ryan Abbott, a law professor at University of Surrey, has been challenging this common notion since 2013. He rejects that only a person can be an inventor and claims that an AI machine could be an inventor as well. “We’re moving into a new paradigm where not only do people invent, people build artificial intelligence that can invent,” said Abbott, who authored in 2020 a book with the title “The Reasonable Robot: Artificial Intelligence and the Law.”

The Artificial Intelligence Project

According to Abbott, corporations are unwilling to push the issue of AI inventions, if it means not being able to obtain legal protection for their products. Thus, he set up the Artificial Intelligence Project [1] and teamed up with Stephen Thaler, founder of Imagination Engines Inc., to build a machine whose main purpose is to invent. The result was DABUS, an AI machine that “invented” not only the aforementioned beverage container, but also a device for attracting enhanced attention. Abbott and a group of volunteering lawyers filed patent applications for these inventions in 17 jurisdictions listing DABUS as the inventor.


© Adobe Stock

Unsuccessful patent applications

The quest of Abbott and his team to put man and machine on an equal footing under international patent law has been overwhelmingly met by a negative response from patent offices all over the world. As of November 2021, the patent application is pending in 11 countries. In the US, Europe, Germany, the UK, and Australia, the patent application has been rejected, and appeals are pending.

The European Patent Office (EPO) and the UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO), for example, came to similar conclusions: they denied the patent applications on the grounds that an AI system cannot be listed as an inventor. The European Patent Convention and the UK Patents Act, which were the basis for the respective decisions, both require an inventor to be a named person. The same requirement is valid under the U.S. Patent Act.

The first patent for an AI machine

Despite the rejection by almost all patent offices, Abbott and his team finally had reason to celebrate a victory in July 2021: The Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC), an agency of the South African Department of Trade and Industry, granted a patent to the applicant Stephen L. Thaler and the inventor DABUS for a “Food Container and Devices and Methods for Attracting Enhanced Attention“, with the note: “The invention was autonomously generated by an artificial intelligence” [2]. That has made South Africa the first, and, so far, the only country to grant a patent to an AI inventor. One of the reasons for this result could be that the term “inventor” is not defined in South African patent law.

The distinction between owner
and inventor

In patent law, there is the distinction between the owner of an invention and the inventor. Depending on the jurisdiction in different countries, this distinction is important. The owner of the patent is usually the one who has the right to exploit it. Nonetheless, at least one name of an inventor has to be provided, otherwise the patent application gets rejected.

And this is exactly where current patent laws fall short, because Thaler did not invent the beverage container, it was DABUS, the AI machine he had built. If he had given his own name as inventor, more patent offices might have accepted his application.

Conclusion

The case of DABUS shows that current intellectual property and patent laws, which usually have been written decades ago, are getting increasingly out of sync with a fast-evolving technology landscape. The expected progress of artificial intelligence in all areas of life should sooner or later lead to a reconsideration of legal concepts regarding inventorship. Who knows, the next breakthrough invention may not be generated by an ingenious scientist of flesh and blood, but rather by an advanced AI machine.

References:
[1] Artificial Intelligence Project website – https://artificialinventor.com
[2] The patent for DABUS is registered in South Africa under the patent application number 2021/03242, application date: 13/05/2021, CIPC Patent Journal, July 2021, Vol 54, No. 07, Part II of II, 28 July 2021, page 255, URL: https://iponline.cipc.co.za/Publications/PublishedJournals/E_Journal_July%202021%20Part%202.pdf

ENISA threat landscape report highlights surge in cybercrime

The 2021 edition of the Threat Landscape report by the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity, ENISA, highlights a surge in cybercrime, mainly driven by ransomware and cryptojacking attacks.

Ransomware ranks as a prime threat for the reporting period April 2020 to July 2021. The cybersecurity threat landscape has grown in terms of sophistication of attacks, complexity and impact. This trend is spurred by an ever-growing online presence, the transitioning of traditional infrastructures to online solutions, advanced ­interconnectivity, and the exploitation of new ­features of emerging technologies. Supply-chain attacks rank highly among prime threats because of the significant potential they have in inducing catastrophic cascading effects.

The 9 top threats: 9 threat groups were identified due to their prominence in the reporting period. They include ransomware; malware; cryptojacking; e-mail related threats; threats against data; threats against availability and integrity; disinformation – misinformation; non-malicious threats; and supply-chain attacks.

Key trends: The COVID-19 crisis has created possibilities for attackers, who used the pandemic as a dominant lure in campaigns for email attacks for instance. Monetisation appears to be the main driver of such activities. The techniques that threat actors used are numerous. The following non-exhaustive list presents some of the most prevalent threats identified in the report: Ransomware as a Service (RaaS)-type business models; multiple extortion ransomware schemes; Business Email Compromise (BEC); Phishing-as-a-Service (PhaaS); and Disinformation-as-a-Service (DaaS) business model.

Three types of threats receive particular attention in the report: ransomware, cryptojacking infections, and misinformation and disinformation.

Ransomware has been the prime threat during the reporting period, with several high profile and highly publicised incidents. The significance and impact of the threat of ransomware is also evidenced by a series of related policy initiatives in the European Union (EU) and worldwide. Compromise through phishing e-mails and brute-forcing on Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) services remain the two most common infection vectors. The occurrence of triple extortion schemes also increased strongly during 2021 and cryptocurrency remains the most common pay-out method for threat actors.

Cryptojacking or hidden cryptomining is a type of cybercrime where a criminal secretly uses a victim’s computing power to generate cryptocurrency. With the proliferation of cryptocurrencies and their ever-increasing uptake by the wider public, an increase in corresponding cybersecurity incidents has been observed. Cryptocurrency remains the most common pay-out method for threat actors.

Misinformation and disinformation are for the first time appearing in the ENISA threat landscape report. Disinformation and misinformation campaigns are on the rise as a result of the increased online presence due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to a high use of social media platforms and online media. Disinformation and misinformation campaigns are frequently used in hybrid attacks to foster doubt or create confusion, therefore reducing the overall perception of trust as a consequence and damaging this major proponent of cybersecurity in the process.

Threat actors: The report is focused on four categories of cybersecurity threat actors – state-sponsored actors, cybercriminals, hacker-for-hire actors, and hacktivists. Cyber threat actors are an integral component of the threat landscape. They are entities aiming to carry out a malicious act by taking advantage of existing vulnerabilities, with the intent to do harm to their victims. Understanding how threat actors think and act, what their motivations and goals are, is an important step towards a stronger cyber incident response. Monitoring the latest developments with respect to the tactics and techniques used by threat actors to achieve their objectives is crucial for an efficient defence in today’s cybersecurity ecosystem. Such threat assessment allows us to prioritise security controls and devise an adequate strategy based on the potential impact and likelihood of threat materialisation.

The ENISA Threat Landscape 2021 report is the annual report of the EU Agency for Cybersecurity, ENISA, on the state of the cybersecurity threat landscape. The 9th edition was published in October 2021.

Further information:
ENISA Threat Landscape Report 2021 –
https://www.enisa.europa.eu/publications/enisa-threat-landscape-2021

4th release of 5G PPP white paper on 5G architecture published

In October 2021, the 5G PPP Architecture Working Group published version 4.0 of the white paper “View on 5G Architecture”. It provides a consolidated view of the architectural efforts developed in the projects of the 5G PPP and other research efforts, including standardization. This serves not only to review the current state of the 5G architecture, but also to identify promising trends towards the next generation of mobile and wireless communication networks, 6G.

The 4th release of the white paper is focused on the output of the 5G PPP Phase 3 projects in terms of the architecture for the integration of large infrastructures and vertical industries, the long-term evolution of the 5G technologies and the service-specific features. The white paper presents a consolidated current overview on the 5G architecture as developed by these European research efforts.

Further information
White Paper: 5G PPP Architecture Working Group – View on 5G Architecture, Version 4.0 – https://zenodo.org/record/5155657

5G-VINNI project on TelecomTV

Roundtables about uses cases and network slicing

Milon Gupta
Eurescom

In September and October, the 5G Verticals Innovation Infrastructure project of the 5G PPP, 5G-VINNI, which is funded under the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme, presented selected results in a series of online roundtables. Topics included 5G-VINNI’s use cases as well as orchestration and automation of network slicing. The roundtables were organised and produced in collaboration with TelecomTV.

Roundtable about 5G-enabled use cases

On 21st September, TelecomTV published the first of two roundtable videos about 5G innovation for industry verticals. The session sponsored by 5G-VINNI partner Nokia featured two speakers from the project: 5G-VINNI Coordinator Pål Grønsund from Telenor Research and David Kennedy, Director of Eurescom. They discussed, how 5G-VINNI has contributed to unlocking the value of 5G-enabled use cases. Pål Grønsund shared the achievements and lessons learned through the 5G-VINNI project, while David Kennedy presented Eurescom’s perspective on the drivers behind the 5G PPP programme as a European, multi-vendor 5G environment for vertical industry-driven 5G use case trials.

Roundtable about orchestration and automation of network slicing

On 28th September, TelecomTV published the second roundtable video. This roundtable focused on orchestration and automation of network slicing, in particular on how 5G-VINNI has proved how zero-touch digital orchestration can simplify network slicing and lay the foundation for reliable, profitable, industry-specific 5G services.

The session featured two speakers from the project: Deepa Ramachandran, Director Product Management – Digital Operations at Nokia, shared insights into Nokia’s experiences with orchestration and automated network slicing. Dr. Ilangko Balasingham, Professor of Medical Signal Processing and Communications at the Intervention Center of Oslo University Hospital, talked about some of the health-related use cases explored and what they have shown.

On 5th October, an online Q&A session took place, in which anyone interested had the chance to ask questions to the 5G-VINNI speakers from both sessions.

TelecomTV - 5G-VINNI Roundtable 1
Discussing 5G-VINNI results (from left): moderator Guy Daniels, 5G-VINNI Coordinator Pål Grønsund from Telenor Research and David Kennedy, Director of Eurescom

Further information:
5G-VINNI roundtables on the TelecomTV website – https://www.telecomtv.com/content/5g-vinni/

5G_footprint_in_broadcast_technology

IEEE International Symposium on Broadband Multimedia Systems and Broadcasting

Anastasius Gavras
Eurescom

The 16th edition of the IEEE International Symposium on Broadband Multimedia Systems and Broadcasting 2021 (BMSB 2021) was planned to be held in Chengdu, China on 4–6 August 2021. Like many other events, also BMSB 2021 was turned into a fully online event due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The symposium is the premier forum for the presentation and exchange of technical advances in the rapidly converging areas of multimedia broadcasting, telecommunications, consumer electronics, and net­-
working technologies.

Overall, the core program of the conference was held according to the published schedule, and the online format only affected the poster and best paper award sessions with a slightly adapted timing.

During the opening of the symposium, three keynote presentations addressed the audience outlining future trends and recent innovations and developments in the sector. Madeleine Noland, President of the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC), USA presented her view on innovations in the Next Generation TV. Qingjun Zeng, Deputy Director General of China Broadcasting Network (CBN), China presented the recent developments in 5G broadcast in China. Finally, Dr. Yue Zhang, Associate Professor, University of Leicester, UK and Technical Manager of the EU-funded 5G PPP project 6G BRAINS presented the project.

The main programme featured 10 sessions covering a wide variety of topics, including multimedia transmission systems, artificial intelligence in next generation systems, service quality and content, immersive image processing and applications, multimedia signal processing and last but not least multimedia networking.

Beyond 5G and 6G in broadband multimedia and broadcast systems

In his keynote Dr. Zhang presented the work of 6G BRAINS in view of the emergence of beyond 5G and 6G concepts and prototype solutions that will have a major impact on the broadband multimedia and broadcast industry. Dr. Zhang used a 6G BRAINS use case as a requirements-driving example. High-resolution, high frame-rate wireless video cameras can easily be deployed in a factory environment to unleash a long list of new features and services in an industry environment. Among others this technology contributes to anomaly detection, improved safety, process tracking and logging, remote control and predictive maintenance. State-of-the-art cameras already put a stress of up to 3 Gbps per unit on the wireless network, which along with the high reliability requirements in such a setting, illustrate the ambition.

Further information:
IEEE BMSB 2021 website – https://bmsb.scimeeting.cn/en/web/index/

 

The road to 6G

In the first article of the cover theme, Eurescom message editor Uwe Herzog gives an overview on activities and concepts currently being explored on the road to 6G.

Continue reading