Canada punching well above its weight in AI, report reveals

Artificial intelligence may not have reached its world domination moment just yet but the economic impact of AI is now being realized globally, with countries like China and the United States putting more and more efforts into research and applications. But Canada is also poised to be a player in the AI revolution. With startup and university research cultures in places like Toronto and Montreal and with a prime minister who's a bonafide AI cheerleader, Canada is set to punch well above its weight Last year, the Wuzhen Institute, a Chinese think tank, issued a report on the state of the world's artificial intelligence research, finding that while the United States is miles ahead of all other countries in terms of the number of AI companies and patents applications, China is quickly catching up. Chinese AI companies received $2.6 billion in funding over the past five years, again second only to the US, and Chinese innovation has shown a 200 per cent uptick in patent submissions over just the past two years. "AI is developing rapidly in China," says Zhao Ziming, analyst at the Internet consultancy company, Analysys, to the China Daily.