On Wednesday, Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio and President Joe Biden had a conference meet at the White House.
The two leaders discussed a number of economic and technological issues, including the rapidly expanding and unsettling field of artificial intelligence ( AI), which were a key topic of conversation.
The Associated Press ( AP ) archly noted that Kishida and Biden are in comparably dire political straits, as both are struggling with low approval ratings, corruption scandals, and severe economic problems. Hence, both of them were anxious to amplify the close relationship between Japan and the United States in order to get some positive press.
On April 10, 2024, during a state visit to the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, DC, Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio and U.S. President Joe Biden make a press conference. ( Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Bloomberg via Getty Images )
” I’m optimistic that 2024 will be the time the Chinese economy can escape the negative attitude and the cost-cutting, scaling-down culture that have weighed heavily on our country,” Kishida said on Tuesday while making a explore to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce before heading to the White House.
To enjoy Microsoft’s$ 3 billion funding in two Chinese data facilities and a fresh AI laboratory, Kishida met with Microsoft President Brad Smith in order to do that. By 2027, the test is expected to train three million Artificial professionals. Helping the Chinese government to strengthen its security threats will be one of their responsibilities.
By expanding the infrastructure, qualified talent, and security needed to promote Japan’s modern transformation and adoption of AI, these investments aim to help Japan’s essential pillar to combat deflation and stimulate the economy, according to Microsoft’s statement on Kishida’s meeting with Smith.
The company continued,” This significant increase in digital capacity will enable Microsoft to provide more advanced computing resources in Japan, including the most recent graphics processing units ( GPUs ), which are essential for accelerating AI workloads.”
Microsoft said its Japanese investment was part of the company’s drive to “increase its hyperscale cloud computing and AI infrastructure” . ,
A hyperscale sky program is a massive , online data storage and processing resource that incorporates many broadly distributed data centers to make what customers perceive as one large, soft, pleasant cloud of services.  ,
Real hyperscale cloud computing is still in its early stages, and systems on that size are challenging to build and maintain. The big three services — Microsoft, Amazon, and Google — now control about 65 percent of the cloud business, with the remainder divided between smaller local companies.
As for the new AI laboratory in Japan, Microsoft said it would concentrate on “areas including embodied AI and robotics, political AI and welfare, and scientific breakthrough that coincide with Japan’s socio- financial objectives” . ,
This seems like an oblique reference to Japan’s 2019 Social Principles of Human- Centric AI, a document that said artificial intelligence should be designed in a way that actively promotes “human dignity, diversity, and sustainability”. In reality, this has resulted in a strong emphasis on transparency regarding how AI systems use search algorithms to manipulate the data that human users view, as well as a higher level of legal liability for AI providers whose systems lead to issues for human users.
Microsoft announced that it would contribute$ 10 million in grants over the next five years to the University of Tokyo and the Partnership on Artificial Intelligence Research, a joint project of Keio University and Carnegie Mellon University, in addition to expanding its AI laboratory and training complex.
After meeting with Kishida, Microsoft President Miki Tsusaka stated,” We are honored to contribute to Japan and its future with our largest investment to date, technology, and knowledge.” Microsoft Japan is fully committed to helping the people and organizations of Japan solve social problems and achieve more in collaboration with our partners.
In addition to the Carnegie Mellon-Keio University joint project, Nvidia and Amazon and electronics giant Nvidia announced on Wednesday that they would contribute to a$ 50 million joint AI research program between the University of Washington in Seattle and Tokyo’s Tsukuba University.
The Biden administration’s desire to develop a new set of AI regulations before the end of Biden’s term seems to be a source of some of the enthusiasm for these projects. Federal agencies are required to develop strategies for monitoring the impact of AI technology as a deadline for the year-end.
Japanese Education Minister Moriyama Masahito and U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy David Turk will” soon” sign the first bilateral agreement between the United States and Japan on artificial intelligence technology, according to Nikkei Asia. The two recently met in Washington on Tuesday to talk about research into nuclear fusion energy.
The agencies of Moriyama and Turk are working on projects to explore how generative AI can be used to advance scientific research. AI systems could at the very least handle routine paperwork and improve researcher efficiency, but there is a chance that advanced AI could be able to design experiments and create hypotheses by digesting enormous amounts of experimental data.
The bilateral agreement to be signed by Moriyama and Turk will include the sharing of research data, exchanges of students and scientists between the two countries, and even collaboration between two named supercomputers, Japan’s Fugaku and America’s Aurora.
The Aurora supercomputer, sponsored by the Department of Energy and built by the Intel and Cray corporations, is located at the Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, Illinois. Aurora is currently ranked as the second-fastest supercomputer in the world, trailing only behind the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee’s Cray-built Frontier system, but it is going through some upgrades that will probably help it move up to the top spot. The world’s fourth-fastest supercomputer is currently known as Fukuku.
Closer cooperation with the U. S. on AI and supercomputers could be part of Japan’s bid to join the AUKUS defensive alliance, formed in 2021 by the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia.
AUKUS praised the efforts of “like-minded partners” in the development of quantum computer technology for electronic warfare and cybersecurity in a joint statement released on Monday. Japan was the only name that was mentioned in the statement, according to the statement.
We are considering cooperating with Japan on AUKUS Pillar II advanced capability projects because of Japan’s strengths and its close bilateral defense partnerships with all three countries, according to the statement. In response to China’s territorial ambitions, Pillar I is ensuring freedom of navigation in the Asia-Pacific region while Pillar II is AUKUS’s commitment to developing advanced computer capabilities.
