China is emerging as a global powerhouse in the artificial intelligence (AI) race, close behind the United States, according to the 2021 Global AI Innovation Index Report released on Sept 1.

The US and China dominate the AI industry, and are the only two countries in the first tier, according to the Global AI Innovation Index Report 2021 drafted by the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China. The two countries were way ahead of the 44 other surveyed countries with scores of over 50 points and ranked in the top five in all four key categories.

Nine countries including South Korea and the United Kingdom were in the second tier, 13 counties such as Sweden and Luxembourg in the third tier, and 22 countries such as India and Russia in the fourth tier.

The US outperformed other countries by ranking first for three consecutive years. China maintained rapid growth by ranking second for two consecutive years, getting closer to the US compared to the previous years. Competition among the United Kingdom, South Korea, France, Canada, Japan and Germany has became fiercer, and Turkey and India moved up spots in the rankings.   

According to latest research, China has witnesses rapid growth in the development of AI, and the comprehensive strength of AI is constantly improving.

China has created more and better quality open resource projects. The number of AI open resource codes increased from 139 in 2020 to 158 in 2021, among which 82 were collected over 200 times. The collection was zero in 2020.

China grabbed the first spot in the list of countries with the most advanced supercomputer centers. By June 2021, 188 of China's supercomputer centers had entered the global top 500 list, accounting for 37.6 percent of the world's total. But the number was less than that in 2020.

China has the world's second-highest number of AI companies. By September 2021, China had 880 AI companies, a year-on-year increase of 7 percent. The AI companies in China obtained a total investment of $46.2 billion, ranking second in the world, and the average amount of financing for each companies reached 53 million dollars, which ranked first.

China has also grown in the field of AI R&D. In 2020, Chinese scholars had 68,000 AI-related papers published, including 4,019 in top academic journals and meetings, which ranks first world. The number of AI patent applications and patents has been on a steady incline since 2020, reaching 62,000 and 21,000, respectively, and an increase of 7.6 percent and 2.8 percent year-on-year.

The country has also witnessed rapid development of its 5G and internet of things technologies. The number of patents granted for 5G technology ranked first in the world, and the number of companies entering the global top 500 list increased slightly compared to that in 2020, accounting for about half of the world’s total.

China is behind the US in most of the fields such as investment in innovation, AI education, human resources and information infrastructure.