Statistical Measure of China's Innovation Capability in Artificial Intelligence

As the core of technological change, the ability to innovate artificial intelligence (AI) is related to a country's scientific and technological strength and competitiveness. In this paper, an indicator system was constructed for measuring technological innovation capability in 30 provinces and cities in China (2012 ~2019) from four levels - innovation subjects, environment, motivation, and benefits - based on the coefficient of variation method and TOPSIS model. The results show that China's innovation capability in AI is on the rise, but there are significant spatial differences in various regions, which are mainly manifested in a decreasing gradient from east to west. Further research found that among the four levels, innovation capability of the first echelon provinces and cities is generally higher; except for innovation benefits, the progress in innovation capability of the first echelon provinces and cities in the other three levels has been slow.