TOKYO, April 10 (Reuters) – Japan will consider government adoption of artificial intelligence technology such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot if privacy and cybersecurity concerns are resolved, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said on Monday.
The remarks from Matsuno, the government’s top spokesman, came shortly before Sam Altman, chief executive of OpenAI, met Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during a visit to Japan, where Altman said the his company is “looking at opening an office”.
“We hope to … build something great for Japanese people, make better models for the Japanese language and Japanese culture,” Altman told reporters following his meeting with Kishida.
Asked about Italy’s temporary ban on ChatGPT – developed by Microsoft Corp ( MSFT.O ) backed by OpenAI – Matsuno told a regular news conference that Japan was aware of other countries’ actions.
Japan will continue to explore the possibilities of introducing AI to reduce the workload of government workers after assessing how to respond to concerns such as data breaches, Matsuno said.
Following Italy’s crackdown on ChatGPT, which inspired other European countries to consider such measures, OpenAI last week presented steps to resolve privacy breach concerns with the Italian regulator.
In a blog post last week titled “Our approach to AI safety”, the San Francisco-based company said it is working to develop “nuanced policies against behavior that represents a real risk to people.”
OpenAI CEO Altman said he told Japan’s Kishida about “the upsides of this technology and how to mitigate the downsides” at Monday’s meeting in Tokyo.
Reporting by Kantaro Komiya and Satoshi Sugiyama; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Kenneth Maxwell
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