Ask HN: Do AI startups even bother with patents anymore?

Hey HN, I've been talking to AI and health-tech founders lately, and something keeps coming up: patents feel like they were designed for a different world. By the time you spend $20k and wait 2–3 years, your startup has probably pivoted twice.

So I'm genuinely curious what people here are actually doing. Are you filing patents anyway? Keeping things as trade secrets? Publishing defensively? Or just not thinking about IP until there's funding on the table?

I threw together a really short survey (60 seconds, promise) to get some real data—no sales, just trying to understand what founders actually do: Form Link: https://forms.gle/8UAytkGNfge4GKrH8

If you'd rather just comment below, that's honestly just as helpful.