According to the Information & Communications Technology Promotion (IITP) data, South Korea ranked third globally in the number of patents related to artificial intelligence between January 2005 and September 2017.
The Institute tracks artificial intelligence patents issued by major national patent offices.
According to the survey, in South Korea, the number of patent applications filed in the field of artificial intelligence has increased by an average of 8% annually, from 463 in 2005 to 892 in 2017.
It is a global trend for information technology companies and researchers to promote the publication of AI patent and academic papers.
According to the IITP report, the number of patent applications filed for artificial intelligence in the world surged from about 5,000 in 2005 to 9,100 this year. Between January and September this year alone, 20,000 academic papers on artificial intelligence were published.
In the U.S., there are 4,738 patent applications this year, including technology giants such as Qualcomm, IBM, Microsoft, Google, Apple, Intel and Facebook.
Data show that Qualcomm is the largest US patent holder of artificial intelligence, with 2325 patents.
The survey found that in South Korea, Samsung Electronics has 3188 patents in the past 12 years, topped the list.
LG Electronics followed with 899 patents, of which 865 are electronics and telecommunications research institutes, 350 are LG Display, and 207 are Samsung Display and Samsung Electronics.
Hyundai Motor Co. filed 113 AI-related patents while Korea Advanced Technology Research Institute and SK Telecom owned 91 and 75 patents, respectively.
Choil-koo, head of IITP's research team, said: "Leading companies and organizations are clearly investing in intellectual property in AI and commercial products because they believe in potential market growth."
However, the official pointed out that South Korea's competitiveness in the field of artificial intelligence technology has recently been lower than that of the United States and China.
Headquartered in the United States Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Amazon are at the forefront of artificial intelligence, including labor, data, hardware and investment, and China's artificial intelligence patent applications to 37% annual growth rate, led by Huawei.
He said: 'South Korea's AI patent shows that the current overall skill level is lower than that of the United States, Europe and China.' 'South Korea can only achieve state of the art skills in Korean intelligence and listening intelligence.'