Input Sought to Rewrite Intangibles Accounting Rules for AI Era

The US accounting standard-setter is seeking input on whether to modernize its decades-old rules for recording intangible assets like trademarks or patents that are frequently missing from corporate balance sheets.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board on Thursday issued an invitation to comment on a possible overhaul of intangibles rules, which were written for a manufacturing-based economy, not the artificial intelligence era. Updated accounting rules could shrink a yawning gap between corporate book and market values that has evolved because now-lucrative intangible assets must often be booked as a hit against income.

Among its questions, the board asked stakeholders as part ...