China Leads in Generative AI Patents: UN Report

On Wednesday, U.N. data indicated that China filed six times more patents than the US for generative AI products like chatbots

According to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), which supervises a system for countries to share recognition of patents, generative AI, which generates text, images, computer code, and even music from existing information, is experiencing a surge in popularity, with over 50,000 patent applications filed in the past decade.

It stated that a quarter of them were filed in 2023 alone.

“This is a region that is experiencing rapid growth.” Christopher Harrison, WIPO Patent Analytics Manager, informed reporters that it is an area in which they anticipate further expansion.

Between 2014 and 2023, China submitted over 38,000 GenAI inventions, while the United States submitted only 6,276 during the same period, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

Harrison stated that the Chinese patent applications encompassed various sectors, including autonomous transportation, publishing, and document management.

The data indicated that India grew quickly, while South Korea, Japan, and India ranked third, fourth, and fifth, respectively.
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, China’s ByteDance, which operates the video app TikTok, and Microsoft, a supporter of startup OpenAI, which developed ChatGPT, were among the top applicants.

Harrison of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) stated that GenAI has the potential to revolutionize numerous economic sectors, including science, publishing, transportation, and security, in addition to the widespread use of chatbots that can imitate human discourse to enhance customer service.

Harrison of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) stated, “The patent data indicates that this is a field that is poised to have a significant impact on a variety of industrial sectors in the future.”

He specifically emphasized the scientific sector, where GenAI-generated molecules have the potential to accelerate drug development.

WIPO anticipates filing an additional generation of patents shortly and intends to provide a future update of the data, potentially utilizing GenAI to illustrate the trend.