China leads the race for AI patents

Generative AI, which can generate text, images, source code and even music from existing information, has exploded, with more than 50,000 patent applications filed in the past decade, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Of those, a quarter were filed in 2023 alone.

This is a booming field and is growing at an increasingly rapid pace, said Christopher Harrison, WIPO's director of patent analysis.

WIPO said that more than 38,000 inventions related to artificial intelligence were submitted to the agency by China between 2014 and 2023, compared with 6,276 by the US during the same period.

China's patent applications cover a wide range of areas, from autonomous driving to publishing to document management, according to Mr. Harrison.

The data also showed that South Korea, Japan and India ranked lower on the list, with India growing at the fastest rate.

Among the leading contenders are China's ByteDance, which owns the video app TikTok, and Microsoft, which backed OpenAI and ChatGPT.

While chatbots capable of mimicking human speech are widely used by retailers and others to improve customer service, generative AI has the potential to transform many other economic sectors such as science, publishing, transportation or security, Harrison said.

“The patent data shows that this is an area that will have a profound impact on many different industrial sectors in the future,” said Mr. Harrison.

WIPO said the agency expects a further wave of patents to be filed soon and plans to release a future data update, with the application of generative AI to illustrate this trend.