Interview: China's AI research output grows rapidly, says head of int'l academic publisher
"AI will be a game-changer for the industry, I'm very optimistic about the use of AI," said Harsh Jegadeesan, the chief publishing officer at Springer Nature. by Xinhua writers Lyu Yanhao, Huang Kun BEIJING, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) -- Springer Nature has seen rapid growth in China's scientific research output in recent years, the chief publishing officer at the world-renowned scientific publishing group told Xinhua. "China has been publishing in all key artificial intelligence (AI) research areas," Harsh Jegadeesan said in a recent interview, adding that publications from China are experiencing double-digit growth in all AI-related fields including machine learning, data management, and data science. Springer Nature is a global publisher whose journal Nature is the world's leading multidisciplinary science publication. He said Springer Nature published nearly 3,000 machine learning-related papers from China last year, triple the number from around 1,000 in 2019. China has developed rapidly in science and technology, and the quantity and quality of the papers produced are also rising rapidly, he said. "Taking Nature, our flagship journal, as an example. If you go back to 1997, there were four papers from China, and last year we published around 160 papers with Chinese corresponding authors," said Jegadeesan. "If you look at Nature Index, for example, just from 2019 to 2023, overall AI output increased more than five times from China," he said, adding that six of the ten research institutions with the fastest growth in global AI output are from China. The Nature Index is a database of author affiliations and institutional relationships. The index tracks contributions to research articles published in high-quality natural science and health science journals. The Nature Index shows that China is right behind the United States in terms of AI research output but is growing faster, he said. Regarding Springer Nature's attitude toward using AI in writing papers, Jegadeesan said, "Our policy on this is clear -- author must be human, and AI cannot be listed as author or co-author." Springer Nature has launched two artificial intelligence tools this year to help identify fake content and problematic images generated by AI in papers. "We're fighting AI with AI," Jegadeesan said. While AI presents certain challenges, it offers substantial support to the scientific research community by helping researchers stay updated on advancements in their fields, breaking down language barriers, and eliminating fake content, he said. "AI will be a game-changer for the industry, I'm very optimistic about the use of AI," he said.