Artificial Intelligence Patent Explosion
The idea of artificial intelligence dates back to Greek mythology. Through the years, mentions of robots, systems, modes of transportation, and much more operating and thinking on their own appear in novels and movies, especially science fiction where artificial intelligence seems nearly synonymous.
One of the first books to mention artificial intelligence, Frankenstein, was published as far back as 1818 by Mary Shelley. Some other popular artificial intelligence fictions include I, Robot by Isaac Asimov, Robots vs. Fairies by Dominik Parisien and Navah Wolfe, Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson, and Daemon by Daniel Suarz, to name a few.
To visually entice the imagination, many movies based on artificial intelligence theories exist. Some of the top Hollywood artificial intelligence movies are as follows: Metropolis (1927), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Robocop (1987), The Matrix (1999), Wall-E (2008), and Ex Machina (2014), among many others.
Within many of the movies and books, artificial intelligence is a mere idea. It is an imaginative creation where the authors and producers conjure up scenarios varying from fearing to fighting to controlling to welcoming artificial intelligence. However, newer movies now contain some semblance to artificial intelligence today, making it seem more realistic, more probable, or more potentially viable.
Beginning in the 1950s, artificial intelligence started to become a reality. Twenty years later, computers became commonplace. Since then, artificial intelligence continues to change the world today as we know it. It provides many benefits including better weather predictions, more accurate health diagnoses, self-operating vehicles, and more. And, this is just the beginning!
Unsurprisingly, companies that have the most presence in the artificial intelligence market are high tech companies. According to ipAnalytx, our proprietary patent analytics platform, the following are the top 10 companies with the most patents regarding artificial intelligence:
As indicated, the artificial intelligence market is dominated by large, high-tech companies with deep pockets. These companies are highly competitive in the market as seen with countless lawsuits suing one another for infringement for various types of innovations, such as smartphones, software, and others. As many of these companies and their products coexist, they aggressively protect their intellectual property.
According to the USPTO, the number of artificial intelligence patent applications annually rose 100% since 2002! In 2002, the USPTO reported 30,000 patent applications, while the number in 2018 reached more than 60,000. As such, the explosion in artificial intelligence patent applications implies that artificial intelligence is likely to become a way of life. Instead of a fictional depiction of life, it is becoming a reality!