China is the World Leader in Innovations in Generative Artificial Intelligence

China occupies a convincing first place in the world in innovations in the field of generative artificial intelligence, with six times more registered patents than its closest competitor, the United States, according to data released by the United Nations on Wednesday.

Patent registration requests in this area have exploded recently, notes the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), adding that more than 50,000 have been submitted in the past decade.

Slightly more than a quarter of them were submitted in 2023, they add.

– The field of generative AI is experiencing a boom, growing at an increasing pace – said WIPO’s patent analysis leader Christopher Harrison to reporters.

From 2014 to 2023, China filed more than 38,000 patents in the field of generative artificial intelligence. The United States ranks second with 6,276 applications in the 10-year period ending in 2023, WIPO reported.

Chinese applications cover a wide range, from autonomous driving to publishing to document management, Harrison notes.

South Korea, Japan, and India occupy the third, fourth, and fifth places, adds the WIPO chief, noting that India is first in the world in terms of growth rate.

The highest number of applications was submitted by Chinese ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, during the period from 2014 to 2023. They are followed by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and Microsoft, which financially supports the startup OpenAI, the owner of ChatGPT.

Chatbots have found wide application in the retail sector and other industries, primarily harnessed to improve customer support, but generative artificial intelligence could fundamentally transform numerous other sectors, such as science, publishing, transportation, and security, Harrison said.

– Patent data suggest that this field will have a strong impact on numerous industrial sectors in the future – estimates the WIPO official, highlighting the example of building molecules with the assistance of generative artificial intelligence that could accelerate drug development.