A day after the U.S. AI Safety Institute (USAISI) appointed the first director of the U.S. Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute, the United States just announced the creation of the American AI Safety Institute Consortium (AISIC). Elizabeth Kelly’s appointment was announced by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Marie Raimondo.
The consortium has a blank slate in front of it as it seeks ways to bring together more than 200 companies and organizations developing advanced AI systems.
What metrics can help us understand how AI is trending in the economy? One approach might be to start with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, another division of the Department of Commerce. Looking at that record provides a trove of data that can tell us how deeply AI is currently penetrating the economy.
While this may not be the most appealing analogy, the newly named USAISI could look to some alternative sources. Consider that wastewater monitoring has been turned into a tool by the CDC to detect the presence of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and other viruses. An easy-to-understand chart on the CDC website states, “People who have a specific infectious disease (new coronavirus infection) should be careful not to spread the virus when going to the toilet, showering, washing hands, washing clothes, etc. “There is a possibility that some of the bacteria may be expelled.” If there are no symptoms, flush the water into the sewage system. These data can be used to detect and report infections that exist within the community.
One way to gauge the importance of a term in the business world is to see how many people jump to trademarking the product.
Trademark offices can show you what is happening and what is expected to happen in the flow of commerce. There is a flood of activity for all kinds of AI services, including speech recognition, natural language, banking, financial services, research consulting, weather forecasting, automotive, and more. Processing and customization of information about how products are made (custom-designed garments and measurements), “smart textiles” and AI-designed prepared meals. Although it is a product made with the help of AI, it is not being promoted as much as cars made by AI.
Similarly, U.S. Trademark Office activity may indicate that companies are using terms in different ways in a particular field.
Prior to 2016, fewer than 700 trademarks used the term “artificial intelligence.” Not surprisingly, you can currently find 50,000 pending applications and existing registrations using these words. But here’s another breaking news. It’s not just software-related products and services.
Companies are registering clothing featuring AI-generated artwork.
There are skin care products that are “generated by artificial intelligence” or “generated by artificial intelligence algorithms.”
All kinds of companies outside of the artificial intelligence programming and hardware space may claim to offer products or services that incorporate artificial intelligence. This is not yet reflected in trademark office records, which often reflect a company’s plans. Despite much attention to the benefits and challenges of AI, AI as a whole is still barely dipping its toe into economic waters. still early.
The analogy between wastewater and trademark filing is far from perfect (and I believe this is the first time something like this has been written). Businesses are obsessed with the naming process (and AI is itching to take control), and they love nothing more than coming up with great names. However, companies often do not file those names with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. This is especially true for start-up companies that lack experience in filing applications or do not want to incur the fees associated with the actual process, although they are usually relatively modest. Some companies want to keep their plans secret from the curious eyes of competitors, especially larger and better-funded competitors.
In many cases, a trademark attorney will advise that the benefits of filing an application outweigh these concerns. For example, if a trademark is not yet in use, the only way a company can claim ownership and the right to use it is by filing an application with the Trademark Office.
There are currently approximately 2,000 trademark applications in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that claim to use the term “artificial intelligence” as part of their trademarks.
Even if they don’t use “artificial intelligence” in the name, there is no doubt that applications with artificial intelligence services are moving to the forefront of trademark filing. In 2016, fewer than 700 applications used the term artificial intelligence in the description of a product or service. These numbers essentially doubled from 2017 to 2018, and by 2020 there were over 4,500 pending applications and registrations listing artificial intelligence in products and services. Late last year, as of 2023, that number has almost doubled again to about 8,000 people.
In 2020, we sold over 4,500 travel mugs. This is the same number seen in artificial intelligence that year. The number is very small.
Probably no one will be surprised by this. But when you put this into context, the CDC analogy shows that raw numbers don’t reveal the prevalence of use. You can see this by comparing AI to other types of products that people are signing up for. As Valentine’s Day approaches, let’s start with an old standby: the word “chocolate.” There are over 65,000 current and past trademark applications that apply to “chocolate” products. What does the word “computer” mean? Hundreds of thousands of trademarks.
“Hotel” is 70,000. Even the humble “tire” is named in more than 50,000 trademark applications or registrations filed by him to date. Sweatshirt: 273,000. Child seat: 10,000. Wine: 158,000. If you’re a beer lover, you probably know that there are slightly fewer current or past trademark registrations or applications for beer at 141,000. How about a good old pencil mark? Up to approximately 100,000 of these.
The number of applications and registrations containing the word “Internet” is starting to approach 500,000. In 1999, just before the Y2K meltdown that everyone remembers, the number of applications for products and services that included the Internet had reached 5,800. Perhaps encouraged by humanity’s unexpected survival from Y2K, the number of applications citing “Internet” soared to 16,000 the following year. Perhaps these numbers also suggest that applications for AI products and services are expected to explode.
Signals from the Trademark Office are currently detecting only a relatively small amount of AI trademarks in the pipeline. This suggests that high waves are coming. Using trademark office records as a predictor, booms are unlikely to occur; barely, barely started.
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