China’s generative AI patents are 6 times that of the U.S.

China is leading the world in the number of generative AI patents, six times more than the second country, the United States.

UN data on July 3 showed that China is far outpacing the rest of the country in the number of generative AI inventions such as chatbots. Currently, the country is applying for six times more patents than its closest rival, the United States.

According to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), generative AI (Gen AI) – a tool that generates text, images, computer code and music on its own – is booming with More than 50,000 patent applications have been filed in the past decade. In 2023 alone, the number of patent applications has accounted for 1/4 of this total.

WIPO said more than 38,000 GenAI inventions were submitted by China between 2014-2023 compared to 6,276 for the U.S. in the same period. Christopher Harrison, the unit’s director of patent analysis, said China’s patent applications cover a wide range of fields domains, from self-driving cars to publishing and document management.

Among units from China, Tencent is the leading name with more than 2,000 inventions. (Photo: Bloomberg)

The data shows that South Korea (4,155 inventions), Japan (3,409 inventions) and India (1,350 inventions) ranked third, fourth and fifth, respectively. in which India grew annually at the fastest rate of 56%.

The top 10 GenAI patent applicants are: Tencent (2,074 inventions), Ping An Insurance (1,564 inventions), Baidu (1,234 inventions), Chinese Academy of Sciences (607), IBM (601), Alibaba Group (571), Samsung Electronics (468), Alphabet (443), ByteDance (418), Microsoft (377).

According to WIPO Director General Daren Tang, Gen AI has emerged as a game-changing technology with the potential to revolutionize the way we work, live and play. Through the analysis of trends and patent data, WIPO hopes to help policymakers shape development development of Gen AI for the common good, continuing to put people at the center of the innovation and creativity ecosystem.

WIPO said the number of GenAI patents has increased eightfold since the deep neuron network architecture was introduced in 2017. Gene AI patents span a variety of fields, including life sciences (5,346 inventions), document management and publishing (4,976 inventions).and more than 2,000 inventions in each field such as business solutions, industry and manufacturing, transportation, security and telecommunications.

In the future, GenAI can help design new molecules, accelerating drug development. It can automate tasks in managementand publishing documents, which are increasingly used in retail support systems and customer service chatbots, and enable the design and optimization of new products, including in public transportation and autonomous driving systems.