Over the past decade, China has been the leader in filing patents for generative artificial intelligence (AI).
According to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), over the past ten years, there have been 54,000 patent applications related to generative AI worldwide, with 25% of them filed in 2023. China holds the top spot globally, with 38,000 patent applications (cumulative) for generative AI.
Among countries, the United States ranked second with 6,276 applications, followed by South Korea with 4,155, Japan with 3,409, India with 1,350, the United Kingdom with 714, and Germany with 708.
Although U.S. companies are prominent leaders in the AI industry, China has submitted over six times as many patent applications as the U.S., which registered 6,276.
Six of the top ten individual companies and institutions are Chinese. Tencent leads with 2,074 patent applications, followed by China Ping An Insurance with 1,564, Baidu with 1,234, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences with 607. Alibaba ranked sixth with 571 applications, and ByteDance was ninth with 418. U.S.-based IBM was identified as having the most generative AI patents, excluding Chinese companies, with 601 applications. In South Korea, Samsung Electronics was the only company to make the list, ranking seventh with 468 patent applications.
Zhao Zhiyun, the secretary of the China Science and Technology Information Research Institute, stated in the 2023 Global Artificial Intelligence Innovation Index Report that China’s greatest strength lies in building data resources. He emphasized the need to continuously recruit top talent and focus on key areas to advance their technology development.
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