Countries leading in the AI race

     What countries are currently leading in AI? I believe most people would come up with the United States and China as their first options. In this blog, I would like to introduce you to some of the top leading countries in AI. 

    According to Asgard, the United States is the number one market leader in the AI race based on its AI ecosystems with a 40% market share. They are the strongest regarding their funding, number of companies, and global research. American AI companies have the most number of company headquarters across the globe as well. In the United States itself, Silicon Valley and the New York/Boston metropolitan area are the top two places that push them on top of the list. Along with that, the United States has many top-ranked universities and research facilities. 

    Number two on the list is China. Asgard states that "approximately 11% of all AI companies are based in China." In 2017, China set a goal that by 2030, it would become a world leader in AI. Researchers state that China's research in AI has made great progress in recent years. "China shows that with political willpower, adequate funding, and a clear strategy, a country can become an influential Artificial Intelligence player within years." In terms of the number of papers they have published, according to Dimensions, "China produced more research papers than any other nation." Although their numbers are over the world average, they are still below the number of papers by American authors. Yet Jeffrey Ding, a Ph.D. student at the University of Oxford suggests that the number of papers published does not matter as much. Nature claims that China needs to strengthen the "core technological tools of AI" as well as AI hardware. 

    Coming in third is Isreal. I think that many people did not expect this. According to Asgard although Isreal only has 8.5 million citizens, "Israel has a market share of 11% and is equal to China." The close connection between the digital sector and the Israeli military is one reason this country is a hidden leader in AI. They also have high-quality universities and "a strong entrepreneurial ecosystem in Tel-Aviv."

    Countries that come after these top three are the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, France, and Germany. Asgard states that most of these other countries are falling behind in the AI race because they lack the needed combination of research, entrepreneurship, funding, and mergers and acquisitions to build a sustainable and competitive AI ecosystem. City hubs are an important aspect when growing a strong AI industry. City hubs provide high pressure and fast and fierce competition that helps capital, talent, and ideas grow. Countries that grow their employees, clients, and investors are more highly likely to become world leaders. 

    Were these rankings surprising? I did not know that Israel was a country strong in AI. Apparently, Israel is an important global supplier of weaponry, especially for war. No wonder why their AI technology is ranked in the top three! We can guess that European countries are some countries to keep an eye on for future AI development. 

This was our blog to question #4 of our 30 research questions.

References

Asgard. (2019, May 22). The Global Artificial Intelligence Landscape. Retrieved July 11, 2022, from https://asgard.vc/global-ai/

O’Meara, S. (2019). Will China lead the world in AI by 2030? Nature, 572(7770), 427–428. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-02360-7

Savage, N. (2020). Learning the algorithms of power. Nature, 588, S102–S104. https://media.nature.com/original/magazine-assets/d41586-020-03409-8/d41586-020-03409-8.pdf