In practice, patents don’t really restrict the availability of a technology, from a consumer perspective. Patent holders regularly licence the use of patents. The only purpose of a patent is to fund research costs by creating some guaranteed revenue stream for the patentor.
The only time what you describe happens is if a company ignores its prime directive to generate profit. Such benevolent companies are a very rare thing.
I usually hate this patent fuckery, but maybe this is a good thing. Using ai like this is stupid so patenting this would limit companies doing it.
In practice, patents don’t really restrict the availability of a technology, from a consumer perspective. Patent holders regularly licence the use of patents. The only purpose of a patent is to fund research costs by creating some guaranteed revenue stream for the patentor.
The only time what you describe happens is if a company ignores its prime directive to generate profit. Such benevolent companies are a very rare thing.