The United States is currently ahead of their rivals in the development and use of artificial intelligence while China is catching up quickly and the European Union is lagging behind, according to a research report shown on Monday.
The study was carried out by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. They evaluated AI making use of 30 different metrics taking into consideration factors like research activity, investment in hardware and software, commercial development and human talent.
The United States is currently in first position with an overall score of 44.6 points on a 100-point scale. China follows behind with 32 and the European Union is next with 23.3 points.
The researchers discovered that the U.S. was leading in important sectors like investments in startups and research and development funding.
However, in the past year, China has made giant strides in key areas. As of 2020, China had the most supercomputers than any nation— 214, compared to the U.S’s 113 and the EU’s 91.
‘The Chinese government has made AI a top priority and the results are showing’, said Daniel Castro, Director of the Think Tank’s Center for Data Innovation and lead author of the report.
‘The United States and European Union need to pay attention to what China is doing and respond, because nations that lead in the development and use of AI will shape its future and significantly improve their economic competitiveness, while those that fall behind risk losing competitiveness in key industries.’
The EU is notably behind in venture capital and private equity funding, while doing better in the area of amount of research papers published.
The report found that China published almost 25,000 AI research papers in 2018, the latest year data was published. About 20,400 and 16,300 AI research papers were published by the European Union and the United States respectively.
But it said that ‘average U.S. research quality is still higher than that of China and the European Union’.
The survey ended with the conclusion that the United States ‘is still the world leader in designing chips for AI systems’.
For the competition to go on, the study reported that Europe needs to step up research tax incentives, and expand public research institutes studying AI.
For the United States to remain ahead of the rivals, it must increase support for AI research and development, as well as accelerate efforts to develop AI talent locally while also attracting top talent internationally.
By Marvellous Iwendi.
Source: TOI