Comment by adjejmxbdjdn

Patent laws are a way to avoid trade secrets.

You get protection from the state for making the actual knowledge public but only you are allowed to monetize that knowledge for a period of time.

Arguably the period is far too long, but the concept makes sense.

The alternative is, indeed, trade secrets, where you don’t get state protection if your secret is figured out by someone else (you still cannot steal the secret).

If the AI companies were to hoard knowledge they could also do it though trade secrets and not patents.