Only 5% of 28,000 US taxpayer-funded patents licensed in 1980 — an analogy for AI training data rights
krishnan · x · 2026-11-16
The author cites a historical precedent: in 1980, Washington held 28,000 patents from taxpayer-funded research, yet fewer than 5% were ever licensed. The Bayh-Dole Act then transferred title to universities and companies, products shipped, and the public got no cut.
He uses this to frame today's AI training debate: ASI trains on words authors never sold, and asks where the license fee is — a philosophical challenge to the IP legitimacy of training on unlicensed text.
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