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Tech Trends: What’s the Future for Artificial Intelligence?

February 18, 2019

Is artificial intelligence (AI) the new Internet – a fast-moving innovation that will completely reshape our world before becoming so common it no longer warrants comment? That’s the daring prognostication made by one member of a discussion panel led by WIPO Director General Francis Gurry with AI experts from the private sector and academia.

The discussion came during the launch of the first edition in WIPO’s new Technology Trends research series, which documented a massive recent surge in AI-based inventions led by US-based companies and public research organizations in China.

Joining Mr. Gurry were representatives from companies and universities that are leading on artificial intelligence:

  • New York University (NYU) School of Medicine;
  • The Laboratory of Intelligent Systems, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL);
  • Siemens Corp.;
  • the Institutes of Sciences and Development, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); and,
  • IBM.

Video: The panel discussion took place on January 31, 2019 at WIPO Headquarters in Geneva (Watch on YouTube).

Among the study’s key findings

  • Since AI emerged in the 1950s, innovators and researchers have filed applications for nearly 340,000 AI-related inventions through 20161 and published over 1.6 million scientific publications.
  • AI-related patenting is growing rapidly, with more than half of the identified inventions published since 2013.
  • Companies represent 26 out of the top 30 AI patent applicants, with universities or public research organizations accounting for the remaining four.
  • United States-based International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) had the largest portfolio of AI patent applications with 8,290 inventions at the end of 2016, followed by U.S.-based Microsoft Corp. with 5,930. Rounding out the top five applicants are: Japan-based Toshiba Corp. (5,223), Samsung Group, of Republic of Korea (5,102) and NEC Group, of Japan (4,406).
  • Chinese organizations account for 3 of the 4 academic players featuring in the top 30 patent applicants, with the Chinese Academy of Sciences ranking 17th with over 2,500 patent families. Among academic players, Chinese organizations account for 17 of the top 20 academic players in AI patenting as well as 10 of the top 20 in AI-related scientific publications.

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