Artificial Intelligence is a new competitive battlefield among the leading nations. In a recent hearing of the U.S. Senate Energy Committee, the advances in artificial intelligence and U.S. technological competitiveness were discussed with scientists, policymakers, and security specialists.
For the United States and China, artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms, methods, and applications are considered key to a nation's economic competitiveness and security. This CALCE paper from 2020 investigated the funding by the U.S. National Science Foundation and National Natural Science Foundation of China from 2010 to 2019, including the key institutions and universities that received AI awards. Comparisons were made between the U.S. National Science Foundation and the National Natural Science Foundation of China, including the number of published papers as a result of the awards.
The NSF granted a higher amount of funding and number of AI-related awards than the NSFC in 2010–2019. The NSF granted about 2 billion in AI-related awards through 5,454 projects, while the NFCR represents 0.3 billion and 3770 projects. However, taking into consideration the difference in salaries, the funding value in China is greater than the U.S.
The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) are the two major funding sources for basic research in the U.S. and China. NSF is an independent U.S. government agency created in 1950 that provides funding for about 24% of all federally supported basic research conducted by U.S. colleges and universities. The NSF supports all fields of fundamental science and engineering, except medical sciences. The NSFC was established in 1986 and is the major funding agency for China’s basic research. In 2017, the total budget for the NSFC was about 27% of China’s total investment in basic research. The NSFC funding system focuses on three categories of programs, including research promotion, talent fostering, and infrastructure construction for basic research.
Top 10 institutions with the highest amount of awards under the Division of Information and Intelligent Systems for the NSF and under the AI section for the NSFC in 2010–2019
The amount of AI-core awards by the NSF was about 6.6 times higher than the NSFC in 2010–2019. However, taking into consideration the difference in salaries, the funding value in China is likely greater than in the U.S. based on the cost of doing research in China. The outcome shows the impact; for example, in 2019, China had more than 18,000 AI-related papers from about 58,000 authors that recognized support from the NSFC, while these numbers for the NSF were less than 3,000 papers from nearly 13,000 authors.
Access the full article at CALCE.
Prof. Michael Pecht
For more information about this article and related research, please contact Michael G. Pecht.
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