A patent is a contract between the government and the inventor. The government grants a protected monopoly over the patented invention. In exchange, the invento

A patent is a contract between the government and the inventor. The government grants a protected monopoly over the patented invention. In exchange, the inventor turns over all details of the invention to the public. The primary purpose of patents is to get as many ideas out to the general public as soon as agreeable, circulating in the public technology space. For this to make sense, the patented idea must be "non-obvious". That is, it must be something that one would reasonably expect could be kept secret — this is what patents protect against. If an idea can plop out of an AI, and that AI is generally available, then it is "obvious" in the sense that it's accessible to anyone, and thus the inventor does not deserve any special protection, because the people are not getting any meaningful exchange for what could be a real secret.