Public programs

Realising the importance of AI, governments started joining the race as well. In recent years dozens of countries drafted their AI strategies, which usually concentrated on boosting the local startup ecosystem and incentivising large enterprises on R&D research.

The biggest AI spender in the world seems to be China, which some estimates to spend around $70 billion up to 2020 on AI-related research and businesses.87 The precise estimates are hard to make due to lack of transparency, however, the annual AI budget of China seems to be within the range of a couple to a dozen billion dollars.88 USA seems to have a similar yearly budget level, though due to US-China competition, we should see a growing level of investments in AI in upcoming years, as this technology is of strategic importance.

In general, 2019 was the biggest year in funding, both federal and private, for artificial intelligence ventures yet, and 2020 should be even bigger. This trend should...