About

An assessment of country AI activities can help answer many important policy questions, such as how a country is doing relative to others, and the research areas where it collaborates most often, and with whom. While several existing indices help us answer parts of these questions, there are missing pieces that prevent users from getting a comprehensive picture. Moreover, most conversations are still occurring at a broader “AI” level with an absence of sub-component level analysis, which is crucial for adding nuance to AI policy discussions. For instance, examining country research progress within subfields of AI (such as pattern recognition, computer vision, etc.), AI patents classified under application fields (transportation, life sciences, etc.), or investments in AI companies by application areas (agriculture, healthcare, etc.) can provide crucial insights into specific areas of strength and weakness in a country. This information can serve as the foundation for defining cooperation agreements or learning about market competitiveness.

To support our team's analysis and that of others across the technology policy space, CSET is developing and enhancing the Country Activity Tracker (CAT), an interactive tool for exploring country-level data on tech competitiveness and collaboration. This version looks to assess AI development and presents data on indicators such as research, patents, and investment. All of these indicators represent an important segment of the R&D and commercial sector, and also form a part of some of CSET's own foundational lines of research in studying AI.

Researchers can use CAT to:

• Examine a country's (or countries') domestic AI ecosystem;
• Compare how a country is doing relative to others; and
• Explore pathways for cross-country collaboration.

CAT is currently in beta form. This version looks only at AI. It does not comprise all indicators necessary for AI development, does not cover all countries across the three indicators displayed, and the data displayed is not necessarily representative of a country's tech sector. In the future, we will continue to refine our data and methods, add more indicators, and potentially broaden our scope to include other topics. For more information on the current tool, you can read our methodology or visit our GitHub page containing the code that supports CAT.

CAT was developed by Husanjot Chahal, Jennifer Melot, Sara Abdulla, Zachary Arnold, and Ilya Rahkovsky. For crucial feedback, insights, and editorial support we thank Rebecca Gelles, Catherine Aiken, Igor Mikolic-Torreira, Dewey Murdick, Neha Singh, and CSET's External Affairs Team—Lynne Weil, Daniel Hague, Adrienne Thompson, Shelton Fitch, and Alex Friedland. We are also grateful to the thoughtful reviews provided by Aaron Melville, Andreas Kuehn of the Observer Research Foundation America, Kashyap Raibagi of Analytics India Magazine, Katherine Koleski, Matt Sheehan of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and Michael Sellitto of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence. The listing of a name does not imply official endorsement. To cite CAT, please use Husanjot Chahal, Jennifer Melot, Sara Abdulla, Zachary Arnold, and Ilya Rahkovsky, “Country Activity Tracker,” Center for Security and Emerging Technology.

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