China, US, Germany, Britain and France rank the top five in the world of artificial intelligence and robotics
Recently, Nature, a world-renowned academic publishing institution, released information to the media that the newly published Nature supplement “Nature Index AI (Artificial Intelligence) and Robotics” shows that the United States is still in a clear leading position in AI and robotics, followed by China, Germany, Britain and France, ranking second to fifth in the world.
According to the newly released supplement of “Nature Index AI and Robotics”, during 2015-2021, the number of AI and robotics papers on 82 high-quality natural science journals tracked by the Nature Index rose rapidly year by year, showing an exponential growth curve.
In just two years, the number of articles related to AI and robotics in these journals will increase from less than 4000 in 2019 to nearly 7000 in 2021. For example, according to the “Share”, one of the main indicators of the natural index, the growth data will be more impressive.
According to the natural index data revealing the growth of scientific research output of global research institutions in AI and robotics from 2015 to 2021, the United States is still in a clear leading position in this field, with China, Germany, the United Kingdom and France ranking second to fifth.
Among the top 50 AI and robotics related research output institutions in 2015-2021 ranked according to the share of articles, 31 are American research institutions. The top 10 institutions are Harvard University, Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Max Planck Institute of Germany, Cambridge University, Oxford University, Columbia University, University of California, San Diego, and the National Institutes of Health.
Among them, the Chinese Academy of Sciences was the institution with the fastest growth in the share of articles in this field from 2015 to 2021, and three other Chinese institutions were among the top 50 AI and robotics institutions from 2015 to 2021, namely Tsinghua University (No. 27), Peking University (No. 36) and University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. 38).
The natural index data also shows that AI and robotics have shown the trend of crossing disciplinary boundaries into other fields, thus forming interdisciplinary AI and robotics research, because researchers are seeking various methods to use the advantages of these two disciplines.
The supplement also pays close attention to how AI and robotics promote the progress of disciplines from environmental science to humanities, and how to exert realistic influence in clinical medicine and other fields. The nature index shows that the United States dominates the ranking of AI and robotics research output of medical and health care institutions, and the top 10 institutions are all from the United States.
However, the nature index data shows that the high-quality research output in AI and robotics fields between academia and industry is not balanced. Compared with peers in academia, private research institutions have published far fewer AI papers in leading natural science journals tracked by the nature index. According to the share of articles, Alphabet, the parent company of Google, is the only commercial organization among the top 100 institutions.