Sam Altman, cofounder and chief executive officer of OpenAI, said the organization is looking at opening a Japan office and expanding Japanese-language services after meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
“We hope to spend much more time, and engage with the wonderful talent and build something great for the Japanese people,” Altman told reporters in Tokyo yesterday. “It really is amazing to see the adoption of this technology in Japan.”
OpenAI has set off a frenzy of interest in artificial intelligence (AI) technologies since unveiling its ChatGPT service in November last year.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Microsoft Corp agreed to pour US$10 billion into the company and has integrated the technology into its Bing search engine. Google, the world’s leading search service, has responded with AI integrations of its own, while China’s SenseTime Group Inc (商湯科技) yesterday unveiled an AI-powered chatbot called “SenseChat” to challenge ChatGPT.
Altman said that he discussed the technology’s potential with Kishida, and how to mitigate the downsides.
They also talked about how to be thoughtful about the risks and how to make AI “as good for people as we can make it.”
Altman said OpenAI would work to make its models as good as possible in the Japanese language and for the Japanese culture.
“We’ll be back soon,” he said.
However, in China, shares related to AI plunged after a state media outlet urged authorities to step up supervision of potential speculation.
The ChatGPT concept sector has “signs of a valuation bubble,” with many companies having made little progress in developing the technology, the Chinese-language Economic Daily* wrote in a commentary.
Regulators should strengthen monitoring and crack down on share-price manipulation and speculation to create “a well-disclosed and well-run market,” reported the newspaper, which runs a Web site officially recognized by Beijing.
Companies should develop the capabilities they propose, while investors should refrain from speculating, it said.
CloudWalk Technology Co (雲從科技) tumbled a record 20 percent, while 360 Security Technology Inc (三六零安全科技) dropped by 10 percent, the most in three years. Beijing Haitian Ruisheng Science Technology Ltd (海天瑞聲科技) sank 15 percent.
“Generative AI is the hottest trend now and many tech companies will be launching their own versions in the coming months,” Union Bancaire Privee senior analyst Ling Vey-sern (凌煒森) said. “While valuations may rise to such news, the actual financial impact to these companies may be difficult to gauge at this juncture, and may lead to disappointment eventually.”
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US