Applications for artificial intelligence patents surge

The U.S. and China are ahead of the competition in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), which has witnessed an "upsurge" in patent applications in recent years, according to a United Nations mandated report published late Thursday. The report, prepared by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), said the "biggest untapped opportunities" lie outside the software industry in agriculture, healthcare and manufacturing. WIPO noted that in the last five years, there has been a sharp increase in patent applications for devices and machines powered by AI – defined as the replication of human intelligence by machines. It "suggests that it could soon revolutionize all areas of daily life far beyond the tech world," WIPO Director General Francis Gurry told reporters in Geneva. While research in AI began in the 1950s, the boom in AI scientific publications did not begin until 2001.