China’s AI research quickly catching up to US in this new metric: number of citations

  • China’s ambition is to create a domestic AI industry worth US$147 billion and become a global AI powerhouse by 2030

Sarah Daiin Beijing
China is on a mission to roll out AI in all walks of life, from catching jaywalkers and saving toilet paper by using facial recognition to more loftier applications such as self-driving cars and medical diagnosis. Photo: SCMP/Simon Song

China’s rapid ascendance in artificial intelligence research continues, supported by new data that suggests the country is catching up to the US in high impact research in the field.

While China has already surpassed the US in number of published AI papers, the country’s AI researchers are poised to be in the top 50 per cent of most cited papers this year and in the top 10 per cent next year, according to findings by the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, a Seattle-based non-profit that conducts research and engineering projects.

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