China is leading the world in the number of patents related to generative artificial intelligence, according to a report by the United Nations cited by Reuters.
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) reports that over the past decade, more than 50,000 patent applications related to generative AI have been filed, with a quarter of them in 2023 alone.
“This is a rapidly developing field that is growing at an increasing pace. We expect it to become even larger,” said WIPO’s patent analytics manager, Christopher Harrison.
From 2014 to 2023, China filed over 38,000 patent applications in the generative AI sector, far surpassing the second-place United States, which filed 6,276. South Korea, Japan, and India follow, with India leading in growth rate.
Harrison noted that Chinese documents cover a wide range of sectors, from autonomous driving to document management.
According to him, retailers and organizations are already using chatbots capable of mimicking human speech to enhance customer service processes.
Generative AI has the potential to transform other economic sectors, such as science, publishing, and security, the specialist added.
“Patent data indicates that this field will have a profound impact on many different industrial sectors in the future,” said Harrison.
In 2022, a US court confirmed that artificial intelligence systems cannot patent inventions as they are not human.
In June 2024, China developed an AI commander for military simulations.