China has surged ahead of other nations in the generative AI race, filing six times more patents than its nearest competitor, the United States (US), according to data released by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on Wednesday.
Generative AI, which creates text, images, computer code, and even music from existing data, is experiencing a significant boom. Over the past decade, more than 50,000 patent applications have been submitted in this field, with a quarter of these filed in 2023 alone, WIPO reported.
“This is a booming area. This is an area that is growing at increasing speed. And it’s somewhere that we expect to grow even more,” WIPO Patent Analytics Manager, Christopher Harrison, stated during a press briefing.
Between 2014 and 2023, China filed over 38,000 generative AI inventions, compared to 6,276 by the US. These Chinese patents span sectors that include autonomous driving, publishing, and document management, according to Harrison.
South Korea, Japan, and India ranked third, fourth, and fifth, respectively, with India showing the fastest growth rate in this domain.
Prominent among the top applicants are China’s ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, Chinese e-commerce giant, Alibaba Group, and Microsoft, which supports OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT.
While chatbots capable of mimicking human conversation are already widely utilised by retailers to enhance customer service, the potential of generative AI extends far beyond. WIPO’s Harrison highlighted its transformative potential across various economic sectors, such as science, publishing, transportation, and security.
“The patent data suggests this is an area that is going to have a profound impact across many different industrial sectors going forward,” Harrison noted, particularly highlighting the scientific sector where generative AI-created molecules could accelerate drug development.
Looking ahead, WIPO anticipates another surge in patent filings and plans to release future updates, possibly using generative AI to illustrate the trends.