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Handbook of Labor, Human Resources and Population Economics pp 1–35Cite as

AI and Robotics Innovation

Abstract

Economic activities based on the invention, production, and distribution of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies have recently emerged worldwide. Yet, little is known about the innovative activities, location, and growth performance of AI innovators. This chapter aims to map and analyze the global innovative landscape of AI by exploring 155,000 patents identified as AI-related by means of text-mining techniques. It highlights the emergence and evolution of AI technologies and identifies AI hotspots across the world. It explores the scale and pervasiveness of AI activities across sectors and evaluates the economic performance of AI innovators using firm accounting information. Finally, it assesses recent trends in venture capital investments towards AI as financial support to promising AI startups.

Findings of this chapter reveal a tremendous increase in AI patenting activities since 2013 with a significant boom in 2015–2016. While most of AI patenting activities remain concentrated in the sectors of software programming and manufacturing of electronic equipment and machinery, there are clear signs of cross-fertilization towards (nontech) sectors. The market of AI patenting firms is very vibrant and characterized by a large increase of new and small players with economic performances above industry average. This trend is also reflected by the recent increase in venture capital towards AI startups.

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Acknowledgments

Giacomo Damioli and Daniel Vertesy acknowledge financial support received from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme under the ‘Innova Measure IV’ project, grant agreement no. 857088.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Joint Research Centre, European Commission, Seville, Spain

    Vincent Van Roy

  2. Joint Research Centre, European Commission, Ispra, Italy

    Daniel Vertesy & Giacomo Damioli

Authors
  1. Vincent Van Roy
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  2. Daniel Vertesy
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  3. Giacomo Damioli
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Giacomo Damioli .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. UNU-MERIT & Princeton University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

    Prof. Dr. Klaus F. Zimmermann

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Economic Policy, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano, Italy

    Marco Vivarelli

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Van Roy, V., Vertesy, D., Damioli, G. (2020). AI and Robotics Innovation. In: Zimmermann, K. (eds) Handbook of Labor, Human Resources and Population Economics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57365-6_12-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57365-6_12-2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-57365-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-57365-6

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Chapter History

  1. Latest

    AI and Robotics Innovation
    Published:
    12 February 2020

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57365-6_12-2

  2. Original

    AI and Robotics Innovation
    Published:
    14 January 2020

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57365-6_12-1

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