OpenAI is expanding into Japan, opening a new Tokyo office and planning a GPT-4 model specifically optimized for Japanese.
The creators of ChatGPT opened their first international office in London last year, followed by a European Union (EU) office in Dublin a few months later. Tokyo will be OpenAI's first office in Asia and fourth office in the world (including its San Francisco headquarters). CEO Sam Altman highlighted Japan's “rich history of people and technology coming together to do more” as one of the reasons for establishing a formal presence in the region. .
While the EU is currently driving the AI regulatory agenda, OpenAI's global expansion efforts to date have been quite strategic, insofar as the UK is a major hub for AI talent. Japan is one of the bigger developers and adopters of humanoid robots and other AI-powered hardware, and it featured prominently during Mr. Altman's travels around the world last year. On that occasion, he visited with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and discussed his OpenAI intentions to open an office in Japan. Country. Japan is the current G7 Presidency and is also the Chair of the G7 Hiroshima AI Process, which promotes AI safety, including strengthening AI governance.
The choice of OpenAI to lead the new hub is noteworthy. OpenAI Japan will be headed by Tadao Nagasaki, who joined the company after working for Amazon Web Services (AWS) for 12 years and leading Amazon's cloud computing division in the region. In other words, increasing OpenAI's visibility and business with enterprises is the main goal of this expansion.
enterprising spirit
As president of OpenAI Japan, Nagasaki will be tasked with building a local team to double OpenAI's business in the country. The company already counts Daikin (an industrial company best known for air conditioning), Rakuten, and Toyota among its customers using OpenAI's enterprise version of ChatGPT. OpenAI says this includes additional privacy, data analytics, and customization options for standard consumers. -Grade ChatGPT.
ChatGPT is also used by local governments to “improve the efficiency of public services in Japan,” according to OpenAI.
Customize GPT-4 for Japanese Image credit: OpenAI
ChatGPT has been proficient in multiple languages including Japanese for many years. However, by optimizing the latest version of the underlying GPT Large Language Model (LLM) for Japanese, the understanding of the nuances of the Japanese language, including cultural understanding, is enhanced, especially in business environments such as customer service and content. should be more effective. Creation. OpenAI is very well known at the moment, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have competitors. SoftBank also launched SB Intuitions last November to build large-scale language models and generative language models, hoping to build on and capitalize on the current AI craze in companies. AI service for native Japanese speakers.
OpenAI also says it has improved performance for custom models. This means it should work faster and be more cost-effective than previous versions.
For now, OpenAI is offering early access to GPT-4 custom models to some local companies, with access gradually being rolled out via the OpenAI API “in the coming months.”