Sam Altman, co-founder and chief executive officer of OpenAI, said the organization is looking at opening a Japan office and expanding Japanese language services after meeting with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
(Bloomberg) — Sam Altman, co-founder and chief executive officer of OpenAI, said the organization is looking at opening a Japan office and expanding Japanese language services after meeting with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
“We hope to spend much more time and engage with the wonderful talent and build something great for the Japanese people,” Altman told reporters in Tokyo Monday. “It really is amazing to see the adoption of this technology in Japan.”
OpenAI has set off a frenzy of interest in artificial intelligence technologies since unveiling its ChatGPT service in November. Microsoft Corp. agreed to pour $10 billion into the company and has integrated the technology into its Bing search engine. Google, the world’s leading search service, has responded with AI integrations of its own.
Altman said that he discussed the technology’s potential with Kishida, and how to mitigate the downsides. They also talked about how to be thoughtful about the risks and how to make AI “as good for people as we can make it.”
Altman said OpenAI would work to make their models compelling in the Japanese language and for the Japanese culture.
“We believe that the development of AI will be one of the most important technological revolutions ever, and the role that Japan can play is both as a significant adopter and user and creator of the technology,” Altman told reporters after meeting with local politicians, adding that the country can “help set the global agenda for regulations.”
Some kind of regulation — whether through legislation or guidelines — is necessary given the risks to both human rights and privacy if AI is used unchecked, Takuya Hirai, who chairs the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s committee on the promotion of digital society, told reporters.
“It is important for the government to create a zone where people can feel safe as soon as possible,” he said.
Altman said OpenAI is working on starting operations in Japan.
“I think we’ll be back in a couple of months and I hope there’ll be a lot of collaboration,” he said.
(Updates with additional comments from sixth paragraph)
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