China has outpaced the United States in the number of worldwide artificial intelligence-related patent applications, according to a new report issued by the China Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response team, a research unit under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
China-based companies have applied for a total of more than 440,000 AI patents as of October. Internet search giant Baidu Inc. filed 5,712 AI-related patent applications, ranking first in China for the second consecutive year, followed by Tencent (4,115), Microsoft China (3,978), Inspur (3,755) and Huawei (3,656).
The report showed that Baidu is the patent application leader in several key areas of AI, including the deep learning (1,429), natural language processing (938) and speech recognition (933).
The report pointed out that AI is taken as an important direction for industrial upgrading, and the country’s strategic plan for AI offers a broad space for the research and development of AI technologies and related industries. Moreover, from the perspective of applicants, enterprises such as Baidu and universities have become the main force in driving AI technologies.
It suggested more efforts are needed to strengthen basic AI research and establish intellectual property systems related to AI, as well as introduce high-level talents, in an attempt to grasp the opportunities brought about by AI.
Source: China Daily