Who Owns AI-Generated Intellectual Property? A Thought Experiment

By Dr. Faisal Awartani (CEO)

Consider the following intellectual property scenario:

·         IP₁ (V₁) represents an original intellectual product created and owned by Person P₁(e.g., a research paper, dataset, model, or proprietary report).

·         IP₂ (V₂) represents a distinct intellectual product created and owned by Person P₂.

Each intellectual product can be abstracted as a knowledge vector:

V1=(x1,x2,x3) , V2=(y1,y2,y3)

Now, a third party, Person P₃, does not simply copy IP₁ or IP₂, but instead designs an intentional generative process (for example, through a GPT-based workflow) and produces a new intellectual product:

V3=w1*V1+w2*V2 , Where w1> 0, w2>0, w1+w2=1,

That is w1, w2 are the weights of the newly produced linear combination V3. Which is considered, from linear algebra perspective,  a new element in the vector space of knowledge.

The result, IP₃ (V₃):

·         Did not exist before

·         Is not a replica of IP₁ or IP₂

·         And becomes more valuable than either IP₁ or IP₂ for a specific scientific, commercial, or policy audience

 The core question: Who owns IP₃?

Think of w₁ and w₂ as:

·         Prompt engineering

·         Model orchestration

·         Fine-tuning decisions

·         Editorial judgment

In AI-assisted scientific research, these weights represent human intellectual contribution, not automation.

My own position (open to debate):

If IP₃ results from a deliberate, creative, and non-trivial generative process, then ownership should lie primarily with the person who designed that process, not merely the owners of the source intellectual products.

Open Intellectual Challenge

This is not a theoretical puzzle. It directly affects:

·         Authorship of AI-assisted scientific papers

·         Ownership of GPT-generated reports and models

·         Citation norms and academic integrity

·         Innovation rights in data science and AI

Anyone who offers a clear, rigorous, and persuasive argument, legal, ethical, or methodological, will receive the Insights Prize for Innovation.