AI’s international research networks mapped

The United States is key to many of the top 40 international collaborations in Nature Index artificial intelligence (AI) research, as measured by their bilateral collaboration score. But there is evidence that other countries are also nodes of activity, including the United Kingdom and Germany. China’s individual AI research output in the database has risen quickly, but it is relatively decoupled from global networks.

The United Kingdom in particular seems to have built a strong network, with more connections among the top 40 bilateral international collaborations in AI than some bigger nations such as China. Canada is also a relatively strong player in AI research collaborations, being involved in four of the top 40 country pairings.

The United States has built strong bilateral research collaborations with countries that have important connections of their own. But there is also a number of nations that have a strong AI research partnership with the United States, but no other bilateral collaborations in the top 40. These include nations that are, individually, big hitters in AI research such as Japan, South Korea and Sweden, all of which had an individual Nature Index Share of more than 100 in 2023.