China Leads Patent Race For Generative AI, UN Report Reveals

China is leading other countries in generative AI inventions, having filed six times more patents in the field compared to its rivals in the U.S., data from the UN revealed on Wednesday.

Generative AI refers to technology that uses existing information to produce text, images, music, and computer code. In the past decade, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has seen more than 50,000 patent applications for generative AI. The WIPO oversees a system for different countries to share the recognition of patents. About a quarter of the 50,000 were filed in 2023, signifying a recent boom in the technology, AP reported.

Christopher Harrison, the WIPO's patent analytics manager, told Reuters that generative AI is a booming area, growing at an increasing speed. He also expects it to grow even more.

Between 2014 and 2023, China filed more than 38,000 generative AI inventions. The U.S., over the same period, filed only 6,276, WIPO noted.

Harrison said that China's patent applications covered a wide range of sectors. Some patents covered publishing, others were related to autonomous driving, and some pertained to document management.

Aside from China and the U.S., the other top players include South Korea, Japan, and India, ranking third, fourth, and fifth, respectively. Out of these three, India showed the fastest growth rate.

The top applicants for generative AI patents were ByteDance, which owns TikTok, followed by Alibaba Group, and Microsoft, which has deals with OpenAI, the developer of the popular ChatGPT.

"The patent data suggests this is an area that is going to have a profound impact across many different industrial sectors going forward," said Harrison.

He also noted that generative AI can transform many economic sectors like publishing, transportation, security, and science. Chatbots have become very popular due to their human-like conversational abilities and have been widely used by businesses to improve customer service.

The WIPO also said it expects more patents in this field to be filed soon and will release an update in the future.