Generative AI Patent Trends China Leads, OpenAI Absent, and Labor Market Concerns
TapTechNews July 3rd news, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) today released the latest 'Generative Artificial Intelligence Patent Trend Report'.
Data shows that from 2014 to 2023, Chinese inventors applied for the largest number of generative artificial intelligence patents, far exceeding those of the United States, South Korea, Japan, and India. From 2014 to 2023, the global invention application volume related to generative artificial intelligence reached 54,000, and in just 2023 alone, there were more than 1/4 of the total application volume. During this period, China's generative artificial intelligence inventions exceeded 38,000, which is 6 times that of the United States ranked second.
Chinese companies and institutions dominate in the field of generative AI, occupying 6 out of the top 10 units in patent registrations, and the other 4 are Microsoft, Alphabet of Google's parent company, IBM, and Samsung.
However, the now-hot OpenAI does not appear on the patent application leaderboard. The agency said that until early 2023, OpenAI seemingly did not apply for any patents for its research activities. One possible explanation for this is that OpenAI originated from a non-profit organization, but later transitioned to a 'capped' for-profit model. On the other hand, it may be that OpenAI chose to retain its intellectual property in the form of trade secrets.
TapTechNews Note: The top 10 companies and institutions in patent quantity are Tencent, Ping An Insurance, Baidu, Chinese Academy of Sciences, IBM, Alibaba, Samsung Electronics, Alphabet, ByteDance, Microsoft.
The report also pointed out that although the industry generally has a positive outlook on the application of AI-related patents, people also worry that this technology may disrupt the labor market. 'Unlike the previous waves of automation that mainly affected medium-skilled workers, the risk of AI replacing workers extends to certain high-paying positions, such as some data analysts, market research analysts, or paralegals.'