On November 13, 2020, China Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team(CICS-CERT) released "Analysis Report on Artificial Intelligence (AI) Technology for Chinese Patent Applications (2020)"(hereinafter referred to as the Report), showing the new trend of innovation and development in the field of AI in China. ● China's Patent Applications in AI The number of Chinese patent applications in the field of AI is on the rise year by year. By the end of 2019, China's total number of AI technology patent applications exceeded that of the United States for the first time, becoming the world’s largest. Despite the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, the innovation of AI technology in China was not hindered. By October 2020, China's AI patent applications still reached 694,000, up 56.3% over the same period of last year. ●Chinese Patent Applicants in AI From the distribution of applicants, internet enterprises and universities are the main force in the development of AI technology.
Baidu, Tencent, Alibaba and other internet enterprises rank among the top in terms of patent applications and grants. Huawei, Inspur and other information technology manufacturing enterprises have demonstrated their strong R & D capabilities. Among them, Baidu is in the leading position with 9,364 patent applications and 2,682 grants, and ranks first in the number of patent applications and granted patents in the fields of deep learning technology, intelligent voice, natural language processing, automatic driving, knowledge mapping, intelligent recommendation, transportation big data, etc., while Huawei ranks third and second in the total number of patent applications and grants. Tsinghua University, Zhejiang University and Beihang University have become important contributors to innovation in AI.
（Fig. 2）Top Applicants for AI Patent Applications in 2018 & 2019
(Fig. 1) Annual Trend for AI Patent Applications in China
（Fig. 3）Top Applicants for Patent Grants in 2019
(※) SGCC: State Grid Corporation of China
●Distribution of AI Technologies for Chinese Patent Applications Statistics of the Report show that cloud computing, as the basic supporting technology of AI, has the largest proportion of patents, accounting for 18.38%; computer vision, as an application technology in the field of AI, follows closely, accounting for 17.72%. Deep learning, autonomous vehicles and intelligent robots accounted for 14.52%, 12.36% and 9.55% respectively. Next came traffic big data accounting for 7.58%, intelligent recommendation accounting for 5.72%, natural language processing accounting for 5.65%, intelligent voice accounting for 5.35%, and knowledge graph technology accounting for 3.16%.
It is worth noting that, in addition to application technology, Chinese innovators also focus on the basic technology fields. Examples from deep learning include digital methods for specific functions, digital recognition, computer systems based on biological models, and other basic technologies. Top 10 Chinese enterprises in this field, such as Baidu, Tencent and Ping An Technology, have accumulated a certain number of patents. Source: http://cn.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202011/13/WS5fae6490a3101e7ce972f822.html