Will China's AI Industry Win Humanity's Final Arms Race?

To talk about artificial intelligence today usually involves talking about automation, lost jobs, and whether your Uber or Lyft will be a self-driving vehicle in 5 years time. Taking a step back from the apps in our phones, however, and what begins to emerge is a larger fight between the US and China, AI superpowers whose contest will likely decide the course of human civilization. In January 2019, the UN's World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), whose role is to help spread ideas and innovation around the world, released a report that highlighted the rapid advance of AI patent applications across the world. According to the report, the United States and China's AI-related patent applications outstripped every other nation's by far. "The U.S. and China obviously have stolen a lead. They're out in front in this area, in terms of numbers of applications, and in scientific publications," said Francis Gurry, WIPO Director-General, at a news conference last month announcing the report.