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.”
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