CURRENT AFFAIRS | JUNE 4, 2026
An OpenAI internal model has produced a fresh construction for the planar unit-distance problem — an 80-year-old question posed by Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős. Although OpenAI later clarified it was “not a proof” of the full result, the episode — together with Google DeepMind’s AlphaProof Nexus solving nine other Erdős problems — marks AI’s transition from retrieval to genuine reasoning. The legal questions about authorship, patentability and data-protection follow close behind.
Constitutional & Legal Framework
- Information Technology Act, 2000 + IT (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules 2021 (amended 2023) — India’s present AI / online-content regulator.
- Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDP Act) — consent + purpose-limitation for AI training datasets.
- Copyright Act 1957, Section 2(d) — definition of “author”; computer-generated works under s. 2(d)(vi).
- Naruto v Slater (US 9th Cir.) — by analogy, a non-human (and so an AI) cannot own copyright.
- Patents Act 1970, Section 3(k) — bars “computer programmes per se”, complicating AI-invention patents.
- EU AI Act 2024 — first horizontal AI regulation globally; influencing India’s draft Digital India Bill.
- NITI Aayog’s “Responsible AI for All” Principles 2021.
Why This Matters For CLAT 2027
- AI-authorship under Section 2(d), Copyright Act is rich Legal Reasoning material — apply Naruto analogically.
- Section 3(k) bar on “computer programmes per se” is a recurring patent-law principle question.
- The DPDP Act consent + purpose-limitation framework is current-affairs gold.
- EU AI Act’s tiered risk model is comparative-law reading and a likely Comprehension passage.
Key Facts At A Glance
| Problem | Planar unit-distance (Erdős) |
| Curator | Thomas Bloom (erdosproblems.com) |
| Rival announcement | DeepMind AlphaProof Nexus — 9 problems |
| OpenAI clarification | “Not a proof”; new construction family |
| India AI regulator | IT Act 2000 + IT Rules 2021 (am. 2023) |
| Data law | DPDP Act, 2023 |
| Patent bar | Section 3(k), Patents Act 1970 |
| Copyright author | Section 2(d), Copyright Act 1957 |
| EU benchmark | EU AI Act, 2024 |
| Indian principles | NITI Aayog Responsible AI (2021) |
Memory Trick / Mnemonic
ERDOS → Erdős problems (top 10 unsolved) · Retrieval-to-reasoning leap · DeepMind AlphaProof Nexus · Original construction (not proof) · Skepticism still healthy.
Practice Quiz — 10 CLAT-Style Questions
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