High Expectations for RIKEN's AI Research Center

The AIP(Advanced Intelligence Project): a comprehensive project combining artificial intelligence, big data, IoT, and cyber-security. Three government ministries, MEXT, METI, and MIC are collaborating to promote AI research and development as well as its social implementation. 30 million of the 70 million doller budget has been appropriated towards  RIKEN AIP Center.

Not only that, but the government has assigned the 42 year old Tokyo University professor Sugiyama to a top position in the RIKEN AIP Center.  The project has also secured a driving force in the form of its special advisor, Carnegie Mellon's Takeo Kanade, the heavyweight director of the National Informatics Institute's Kitsuregawa campus.

In 1985, then-70 MIT President Jerome Wiesner entrusted the 42 year old Nicholas Negroponte the directorship of MIT's Media Lab. This is reminiscent of that. Negroponte went on to hold the directorship for 15 years. Perhaps Japan is seeking the same kind of enthusiasm, entrusting the next 15 years of AI research to professor Sugiyama.

In addition to developing foundational technology in the form of revolutionary algorithms such as deep learning, the project will move forward on implementing these technologies in society. AI has uses in fields such as medicine and disaster management.

However, in a world where companies like Google and Amazon are investing in this technology to the tune of hundreds of billions of yen,  the Japanese government has budgeted only billions. Is there a strategy that can bridge this gap?

According to Professor Sugiyama, applied research is a battle of the budgets, but foundational research is a competition between individuals. He goes on to say that on the level of individual researchers, at least, Japan has the capacity to become a game changer.

Well then, what of applied research? It all comes down to the careful selection of themes. They'll have the cooperation of Nobel Prize winners in physiology and medicine for research into iPS cells (Prof. Shinya Yamanaka) and in physics for the invention of efficient blue LEDs (Prof. Hiroshi Amano).  Additionally, healthcare and disaster management can be turned into projects, utilizing Japan's strengths as a developed country facing these new challenges.

RIKEN AIP plans to bring together a system of 200 young top-level researchers. They'll pour efforts into social research at the same time as they continue to cover foundational technology and developing applications. It's important to build a community based not only on scientific research but also on investigating socio-economics, ethics, philosophy and more.

I intend to take up the task of promoting these subjects.

It could be a strategy for Japan to become a major power in AI use. Utilizing it for new developed country challenges such as medicine and disaster management is important, but we should also be proactive in integrating it in the areas of pop culture and education. I want to continue to spread that message far and wide.