A new report released by the World Intellectual Property Organization on Thursday shows that China dominates the global generative AI patent competition, filing over 38,000 patents in this field from 2014 to 2023, six times the number of patent applications by US inventors. Tencent, Ping An Insurance, and Baidu hold the top three spots in terms of generative AI patent applications globally.
Generative AI is an artificial intelligence that allows users to generate text, images, music, audio, videos, and other content.
China has led the way with 38,210 inventions in the past decade, far surpassing the US (6,276), South Korea (4,155), Japan (3,409), and India (1,350).
According to the report, generative AI patents currently account for 6% of the total number of AI patents worldwide.
The report states: "The sharp increase in patent activity reflects recent technological advances and the inherent potential of generative AI."
In the development of large language models (LLMs), after starting late, China has been working hard to catch up with ChatGPT's parent company OpenAI, as well as US tech giants Microsoft, Google, and Amazon.
Last year, Chinese tech giants including Alibaba and Baidu launched their own large language models to challenge their American counterparts.
According to the World Intellectual Property Organization's report, image and video data dominate the next generation of AI patents, with a total of 17,996 inventions, followed by text (13,494) and voice or music (13,480).
The organization stated that by analyzing patent trends and data, it aims to help policy makers "shape the development of GenAI for our common benefit."