Sam Altman, OpenAI co-founder, met with Japan prime minister Fumio Kishida to discuss the implementation of ChatGPT into the country’s institutions.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is spreading like wildfire across the entire world, as Sam Altman announces a possible expansion into Japan. Sam Altman is the co-founder of OpenAI, the Microsoft-owned developing corporation that created the AI softwares ChatGPT and DALL-E.
With ChatGPT, users are able to retrieve AI-generated text by prompting in a few requests. ChatGPT is capable of writing letters, small essays or just chat with the user.
The software is considered a truly revolutionary product, a breakthrough in technology comparable to the birth of the internet. Established tech giants like Microsoft and Google already put their hands on this new development. Microsoft purchased OpenAI for $10 billion, while Google is trying to compete with a similar AI text generator called Bard.
On Monday, Sam Altman met with Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida about the future possibilities of artificial intelligence. Altman revealed that OpenAI is considering opening an office in Japan, integrating their softwares with the local language.
Reuters reported that Japan is considering integrating AI products into their government offices to ease their employees’ workload. “We hope to build something great for Japanese people, make the models better for Japanese language and Japanese culture,” Altman said.
Privacy violations
Japan appeared willing to integrate AI into their government processes only once all the privacy concerns are fixed.
Last week, Italy was the first country to temporarily ban ChatGPT following privacy concerns. The Italian privacy authority deemed data collection by ChatGPT too invasive and without any real, justifiable purpose.
Currently, OpenAI and the Italian authority are in talks to conform ChatGPT with the country’s rule. Nevertheless, other European countries have started taking measures of their own.
The European Union has a history of strict privacy regulations, spanning from American to Chinese corporations. Facebook, TikTok and Google alike were passed under the lens to ensure data protection for European citizens.
Analysis on TikTok use of personal data actually started from the same Italian authority that banned ChatGPT.
Currently, authorities in Germany, Ireland and Spain are following Italy’s model, investigating the matter of privacy violations by OpenAI.
Japan too takes into high consideration privacy issues. For this reason, no real implementation of ChatGPT or any OpenAI bot will happen in Japan until these concerns are solved.
OpenAI has proven to be very collaborative with the Italian and other European authorities, proving willing to develop solutions for user data protection. As such, ChatGPT should be available back in Italy soon, as long as the bureaucratic procedures are finalized.
