美國專利商標局（USPTO）於2020年10月27日發布「發明AI：由美國專利觀察AI普及情形」（Inventing AI: Tracing the diffusion of artificial intelligence with U.S. patents）智財資料分析報告，本報告分析2002年至2018年共16年間美國AI專利之申請資料，發現在AI專利申請數量由3萬件成長至6萬件，成長幅度為100%，而在全體專利當中AI相關專利所占比率，也由原本的9%成長至接近16%，顯示在AI技術研發創新與普及率的顯著成長。
KEY FINDINGS:
• Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly important for invention, diffusing broadly across technologies, inventor-patentees, organizations, and geography.
• In the 16 years from 2002 to 2018, annual AI patent applications increased by more than 100%, rising from 30,000 to more than 60,000 annually. Over the same period, the share of all patent applications that contain AI grew from 9% to nearly 16%.
• Patents containing AI appeared in about 9% of all technology subclasses used by the USPTO in 1976 and spread to more than 42% by 2018.
• The percentage of inventor-patentees who are active in AI started at 1% in 1976 and increased to 25% by 2018. Growth in the percentage of organizations patenting in AI has been similar.
• Most of the top 30 AI companies are in the information and communications technology sector, with some notable exceptions such as Bank of America, Boeing, and General Electric.
• AI diffusion is occurring widely across the United States. For example, inventorpatentees in Oregon are using AI in fitness training and equipment, and in North Dakota, AI is used in agriculture.
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