Stanford publishes its AI Index Report that focuses on the developments of the complex artificial intelligence landscape since 2017. The latest report -- 2021 -- shed some light on the impact of COVID-19 in AI research, countries leading the race in research, and more. In a total of 7 chapters, the Stanford AI Index Report also covers aspects like AI education, research and development, diversity in AI, and AI policy. One of the most surprising revelations, for many, is that China overtakes the US in terms of journal citation, pinpointing the advancement in their research. This comes after China surpassed the US in the terms of the number of artificial intelligence research publications in 2017 after briefly overtaking in 2004.

That's a higher percentage growth than 2018 to 2019 when the volume of publications increased by 19.6 percent. China continues to be a growing force in AI R&D, overtaking the US for overall journal citations in artificial intelligence research last year. The country already publishes more AI papers than any other country, but the United States still has more cited papers at AI conferences -- one indicator of the novelty and significance of the underlying research. These figures come from the fourth annual AI Index, a collection of statistics, benchmarks, and milestones meant to gauge global progress in artificial intelligence. The report is collated with the help of Stanford University, and you can read all 222 pages here.