Technology

The Evolution of Data

Published

9 years ago

January 26, 2015

Jeff Desjardins

The Evolution of Data

“Big Data” is a technology buzzword that comes up quite often. Most investors understand that it describes the current ecosystem in which there is exponentially more data, and that the wealth of information can be processed to create insights for companies. However, the evolution of how we got here is a little more fuzzy.

As the above infographic notes, it all started with ZIP codes. Born in 1963, ZIP codes allowed companies and marketers to gather more information on customers in a way that was not possible before. Then by combining computers with transactional data, businesses were able to learn more about the nature of each transaction. Who and where was something bought? What did they buy?

Then it was all about profiling the customer, so that it was possible to find more customers and grow a company. It started with demographics and then moved to psychographics (or “lifestyle data”). This allowed marketers to come up with a profile for their ideal customers, and how they think.

The most recent development in this type of data is in attitudes and behaviours – and this is where Big Data comes in. By analyzing everyone’s Google searches, Facebook posts, emails, tweets, and more, we now have more complex profiles on every consumer. This has led to massive databases, which need complex and fast analysis to provide any sort of useful insight.

The evolution of data is not ending anytime soon. The next data tsunami will come from information stemming from the internet of things (IoT) that will provide even more data points and need for sophisticated analysis.

Original graphic from: ALC

Related Topics:technology internet of things demographics evolution of data big data psychographics

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Technology

Visualizing AI Patents by Country

See which countries have been granted the most AI patents each year, from 2012 to 2022.

Published

21 hours ago

April 24, 2024

Marcus Lu

Visualizing AI Patents by Country

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

This infographic shows the number of AI-related patents granted each year from 2010 to 2022 (latest data available). These figures come from the Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET), accessed via Stanford University’s 2024 AI Index Report.

From this data, we can see that China first overtook the U.S. in 2013. Since then, the country has seen enormous growth in the number of AI patents granted each year.

Year	China	EU and UK	U.S.	RoW	Global Total
2010	307	137	984	571	1,999
2011	516	129	980	581	2,206
2012	926	112	950	660	2,648
2013	1,035	91	970	627	2,723
2014	1,278	97	1,078	667	3,120
2015	1,721	110	1,135	539	3,505
2016	1,621	128	1,298	714	3,761
2017	2,428	144	1,489	1,075	5,136
2018	4,741	155	1,674	1,574	8,144
2019	9,530	322	3,211	2,720	15,783
2020	13,071	406	5,441	4,455	23,373
2021	21,907	623	8,219	7,519	38,268
2022	35,315	1,173	12,077	13,699	62,264

In 2022, China was granted more patents than every other country combined.

While this suggests that the country is very active in researching the field of artificial intelligence, it doesn’t necessarily mean that China is the farthest in terms of capability.

Key Facts About AI Patents

According to CSET, AI patents relate to mathematical relationships and algorithms, which are considered abstract ideas under patent law. They can also have different meaning, depending on where they are filed.

In the U.S., AI patenting is concentrated amongst large companies including IBM, Microsoft, and Google. On the other hand, AI patenting in China is more distributed across government organizations, universities, and tech firms (e.g. Tencent).

In terms of focus area, China’s patents are typically related to computer vision, a field of AI that enables computers and systems to interpret visual data and inputs. Meanwhile America’s efforts are more evenly distributed across research fields.

Learn More About AI From Visual Capitalist

If you want to see more data visualizations on artificial intelligence, check out this graphic that shows which job departments will be impacted by AI the most.