There can be no agreement, and no logical end to argument, when we are free to shift levels at will. Which is a good argument for our representative democracy rather than direct democracy. The common people would enact all sorts of crazy legislation, until they had shot themselves in their feet often enough to wake up and pay attention to the principles of good government. I'll have more to say below about why the current patent policy is a good one. For now, I will just say that patent law aims to help commerce, not science.
Patent law encourages useful inventions and their spread to industry.
It is not concerned with scientific discoveries except as they may turn out to be useful, and does not directly address scientific pursuit of knowledge. AI is such an area. Agreed, on the first point. When the case for an exception becomes clear enough, Congress has been known to create one. RCA, for instance, was created as a holding company for radio patents because otherwise there could not have been a universal standard for radio broadcast and reception.