China's AI Research Surpasses the US in Both Quantity and Quality

Nihon Keizai, Analysis of Related Papers
Leading in Number and Attention Since 2019
"China's Industrial Competitiveness Expected to Grow"

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] China has surpassed the United States in AI (Artificial Intelligence) related research paper metrics. It received higher scores than the U.S. in both attention and the number of published papers. Since AI is a field connected to various scientific technologies such as military and pharmaceuticals, this is analyzed as a sign that China's industrial competitiveness is strengthening.

On the 16th, Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported that, based on an analysis of AI-related papers over 10 years in cooperation with the Dutch academic information company Elsevier, the number of papers published by China surpassed that of the U.S. starting in 2019. According to statistics, about 135,000 AI papers were published worldwide in 2021, of which China accounted for 43,000. This figure is approximately twice that of the U.S.

China also outpaced the U.S. in indicators evaluating the quality of papers. As of 2021, China was recorded as the country with the most papers in the top 10% most cited in academia. In 2012, the U.S. held 629 papers in the top 10% most cited, ranking first in AI paper citations by country. However, China began to surpass the U.S. from 2019 and increased its top 10% most cited papers to 7,401 in 2021. This is 1.7 times more than the U.S.

However, when looking at companies individually, U.S. companies still lead China in both quantity and quality of papers. Over the past 10 years, the top ranks in AI paper publications by companies have been dominated by Alphabet, Google's parent company, and U.S. IT giants IBM and Microsoft. In terms of paper attention, six U.S. companies including Alphabet were ranked within the top 10.

Nevertheless, in terms of research capability improvement, Chinese companies are showing formidable momentum. In 2021, four companies?Alibaba, Tencent, Huawei, and State Grid Corporation of China?ranked within the top 10 in both paper attention and number of published papers. In 2012, only one company ranked within the top 10 for number of published papers, marking a remarkable advancement.

Nihon Keizai predicted, based on these results, that China's industrial competitiveness will grow significantly in various fields by leveraging AI technology development. Currently, AI is experiencing rapid growth based on ‘deep learning’ technology, which allows it to learn autonomously without humans inputting training data, and is being applied in diverse areas such as literature, pharmaceuticals, and military technology.

The media explained, "Currently, many researchers who studied in the U.S. have returned to China and are producing significant results, surpassing the U.S. in many research areas," adding, "Leading in AI research also translates into superiority in industrial competitiveness and national security."