>Which is a thorny issue because even if we assign them rights, they themselves will be the intellectual property of someone else. An intellectual slave?

Its not that novel. Take a Corporation it may hire an employee, or contractor - or even unpaid intern - and have them develop copy all day long. That copy will be owned by the Corporation in the future, even if the employee/contractor/intern ceases to work for said Corporation (even if said employee/contractor/intern ceases to exist their work will be owned by said Corporation).

It is novel because in the case of IP of this GAI, it would be like owning the DNA of someone. Imagine it being a copyright violation to have babies.

Well if it is like owning DNA, then it can't be patented, the Supreme Court has already taken and ruled on such cases (holding: genes are from nature and can't be patented)...but its not like owning DNA of someone and imagining having babies violating copyright laws won't make that anymore true.

Algorithms are already creating media of all kind (videos, articles, music) and that media is all subject to the same copyright protections as man-made media, replacing algorithm with AI (which seems to be the popular thing to do with SV startups these days, doesn't create Earth shattering facts the law hasn't seen, its just like when the blockchain believers thought DAO code was the law outside the jurisdiction of courts and regulators)

DNA is already established as something owned. I don't think DNA is a good metaphorical proxy in this case, as the DNA of the GAI would sensibly be its set of weights assuming it is a neural net. But if it were, perhaps we would regulate it the way we currently regulate DNA. Which means we ignore the fact that DNA can self-replicate and permit corporations to own DNA patterns and prosecute people who possess or make use of organisms expressing that DNA. While many of the accusations against Monsanto are overblown or inaccurate, Monsanto does indeed own patents on a great deal of genetic material, including entirely naturally produced DNA of organisms in developing nations.

I'm sure we will have this exact discussion when human genetic modifications start to become commercialized...

Of all the things we have to worry about when we have general AI, whether or not they can own ip seems like a small one.

Billions of dollars of lawyer time is wasted annually on this small issue with just humans. It's not as trivial as it seems at first.

It turns out the AI's conquer humanity not through violence, but by highly optimized IP trolling. Hell, we already have a flavor of this on Youtube, where algorithms flag content all day long with little recourse for innocent victims.

I agree. Until the AI itself can complain that someone is getting credit for their work, this isn't a huge issue. Once an AI gets to the point where it feels cheated and wants a cut we've got a very big problem.

famous last words before an ip ownership loophole allows an AI to enslave humanity