Global AI Index: US and China lead investment, as Israel and Singapore punch above weight

Artificial Intelligence continues to grow with global private investment in Q1 2023 touching $18 billion, with the sector's total market value  surging to over $100 billion.

It's no surprise then that most countries want to attract the most lucrative companies (tax-payers) and innovators to their shores. But not all governments are succeeding at funnelling investment.

To get a sense of the global landscape, the Global AI Index has compared the 64 countries that have chosen to invest in AI, based on three pillars of analysis: investment, innovation and implementation

According to the Index, USA remains the clear market leader, scoring well in all indicators of analysis, with a boost from the generous commercial sector investment the country boasts of.

The US was followed by China, but with a significant gap in scores across indicators. While Beijing scored impressively on innovation and investment- it was on the backfoot when it came to implementation.

The research underpinning the Index also noted that the investment gap between the US and China has widened considerably

The US's global private investment to AI start-ups increasing from 51% ($22.5 billion) in 2020 to 53% ($27 billion) in 2022, while China’s share has dropped from 29% ($12.3 billion) to 10% ($5.3 billion).

The index looks at national AI capacity through both absolute and relative measures.

The absolute measure "scale" skews in favour of larger economies, as it measures a nation’s absolute AI capacity, showing its output on the global stage, while the relative measure, "intensity" measures AI capacity relative to the size of a country’s population or economy.

The final index ranking represents a combination of both measures.

While US and China have been historical AI leaders, the UK has taken a hit within the index, falling from its previous 3rd rank, to the 4th in 2023.

This comes despite Britain having a significant edge in research and commercial investment.

Singapore and Israel seem to have punched (successfully) above their weight, especially in terms of their AI capacity building.

Despite its relatively smaller size, Singapore leads the intensity rankings- with overall leader US coming in fifth on this scale.

Low levels of private investment and weak governmental strategy have had South America and Africa lag behind in AI development according to the Index, with Nigeria and Kenya at the tail end of the over all ranking.