Regulatory Dilemmas of Intellectual Property and the Defense of Knowledge as a Commons in the Age of AI
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21814/h2d.7287Keywords:
Sociology of knowledge, intellectual property, tacit knowledge, innovation, artificial intelligenceAbstract
This article analyzes, from the perspective of the sociology of knowledge, the regulatory dilemmas that pit intellectual property regimes against the nature of information as a non-rival intellectual commons. It argues that, while intellectual property functions in capitalist society as an instrument to incentivize the creation and diffusion of innovations, it faces limitations due to the existence of tacit knowledge, which cannot be fully codified or transferred without experiences of socialization. Articulating Janet Hope’s critique of patents in biotechnology with Harry Collins’s concept of social fluency, the paper discusses the implications of these dilemmas in fields of intense innovative and disruptive activity, such as biotechnology and AI. It concludes that innovation regulation in the era of AI requires overcoming purely proprietary logic in favor of a curatorship of the commons that recognizes the collective and situated nature of human knowledge.
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