China Dominate the AI Landscape: Six Times Ahead of the U.S.

On July 3, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) published a report highlighting China's significant leadership in generative artificial intelligence (AI), notably in chatbot technologies. The data shows that China has filed six times more patents in this field than the United States. Over the last decade, from 2014 to 2023, global patent applications for generative AI surpassed 50,000, with over a quarter of these lodged in 2023 alone.

Generative AI encompasses technologies that create text, images, computer code, and music based on existing information. This revolutionary technology applies across various industries, including life sciences, manufacturing, transportation, security, and telecommunications. WIPO reports that China submitted over 38,000 generative AI patent applications in the past ten years, compared to only 6,276 from the U.S. Other countries trailing behind include South Korea, Japan, and India.

The leading companies and institutions filing generative AI patents are: Tencent (2,074 patents), Ping An Insurance (1,564), Baidu (1,234), the Chinese Academy of Sciences (607), IBM (601), Alibaba Group (571), Samsung Electronics (468), Alphabet (443), ByteDance (418), and Microsoft (377). Remarkably, six of the top ten patent holders are Chinese, with four in the top five.

WIPO Director General Daren Tang stated, "Generative AI is a game-changing technology that could transform how we work, live, and entertain." He believes this report will guide innovators and researchers through the fast-evolving landscape of generative AI and its global impact.

Christopher Harrison, WIPO's patent analysis manager, noted that the generative AI sector is thriving and expanding rapidly. He highlighted that China's patent applications span various fields, including autonomous driving, publishing, and document management.

Additionally, a March report from The New York Times revealed that China's rapid growth in AI talent has outpaced that of the U.S., positioning it as the world's largest supplier of AI professionals. Nearly half of the top AI researchers globally are from China, while only 18% are affiliated with U.S. institutions. Matt Sheehan, a research fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, emphasized the importance of Chinese researchers in enhancing America's AI competitiveness.

Research from Georgetown University's Center for Security and Emerging Technologies (CSET) released in early May confirmed China’s leadership in crucial AI research areas. CSET's findings indicated that Chinese institutions lead in both the total number of AI research papers and the number of highly cited articles, with the Chinese Academy of Sciences ranking first and Tsinghua University third in citations.

"China is undeniably at the forefront of AI research globally and may lead in many subfields," said Zachary Arnold, CSET's analysis team lead, underscoring China's extensive engagement in diverse AI research areas, including an increasing focus on foundational studies.