Can AI-generated inventions be patented? A Tokyo court says no

"The plaintiff filed for a patent in 2021 for a device generated by AI, listing the inventor's name as "DABUS, an artificial intelligence that autonomously invented this invention." Device for the Autonomous Bootstrapping of Unified Sentience (DABUS) is an AI system developed by Stephen Thaler, a computer scientist and president of Imagination Engines, an AI technology company.

"Japan's Patent Office rejected the application, saying inventors are limited to humans under domestic law."

So, this is less about the genesis of the invention and more about its attribution.