Global Courant 2023-05-15 19:15:00
TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was surprised to hear his own voice during an informal meeting of artificial intelligence (AI) experts on Tuesday, when in fact it was not him speaking.
Rather, it was AI expert Takahiro Anno, 32, who uses a mouthpiece that can mimic the sound, tone and pitch of Mr. Kishida’s speech, with a deepfake program that reflects the nuances after just two hours of deep learning .
Two days later, on Thursday, Japan convened its first meeting of its AI Strategy Council, effectively an AI policy monitoring tower composed of cabinet ministers and eight business, academic and legal stakeholders.
Mr Kishida said at that meeting that AI “could positively change the economy and society” given its potential to improve productivity amid labor shortages. But it also has risks, he added, as evidenced by deepfakes and privacy leaks.
World leaders will discuss the potential and pitfalls of AI this weekend at the Group of Seven (G-7) summit of wealthy advanced democracies in Hiroshima.
In particular, they will debate the potential and pitfalls of generative AI like ChatGPT and its rivals like Google’s Bard and Microsoft’s Bing, as well as the metaverse and possibly more menacing deepfakes.
Mr Kishida said on Monday that he wants to push for what he called a “Hiroshima AI process”.
Earlier in April, the G-7 digital and technology ministers agreed to push for “human-centric and trustworthy AI”.
“We reaffirm that AI policies and regulations must be risk-based and forward-looking to maintain an open and enabling environment for AI development and deployment that maximizes the benefits of the technology for people and the planet while mitigating risk” , they said in their communiqué.
G-7 education ministers also praised the advancement of technology over the weekend and reaffirmed the need to reduce plagiarism risks associated with generative AI.
Japan’s enthusiasm, with ministries aboard the ChatGPT bandwagon, contrasts sharply with the European Union, which took a step toward more regulation of AI tools in May. Italy has temporarily banned generative AI programs.
At least six Japanese cabinet ministers have signed up to promote the use of ChatGPT to boost productivity: Digital Affairs Minister Taro Kono, Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, Agriculture Minister Tetsuro Nomura, Health Minister Katsunobu Kato, Science Minister Sanae Takaichi and Communications Minister Takeaki Matsumoto.
