Sep 14, 2023

Japan Building Its Own AI Chatbots to Suit Local Language and Culture

The Japanese government and major technology companies like NEC, Fujitsu, and SoftBank are investing heavily in creating their own AI chatbots, akin to the famous ChatGPT developed by OpenAI. While ChatGPT impressed the world with its conversational abilities, there are concerns in Japan that AI systems trained on foreign data might struggle to understand the intricacies of the Japanese language and culture.

Japanese is a unique language with a complex writing system that includes thousands of characters, and its sentence structure is very different from English. AI systems trained in English often have to translate queries into English, find answers, and then translate them back into Japanese, leading to errors and misunderstandings.

Moreover, cultural nuances are essential for a chatbot to be truly useful in a specific context. For instance, a chatbot generating a job application email in Japanese might miss out on crucial expressions of politeness, making it look like a mere translation from English.

Recognizing these limitations, the Japanese government and researchers are investing in creating AI chatbots tailored to the Japanese language and culture. These AI models aim to understand and reflect not only the language but also the customs and norms, making them more valuable in Japanese society.

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While Japanese AI chatbots have made progress, they are currently lagging behind models like GPT-4, which excel in English but fall short in Japanese due to the complexity of the language. However, with substantial investments and the use of powerful supercomputers, Japanese researchers hope to close the gap and create AI chatbots that are not just linguistically accurate but culturally sensitive.

The goal is to accelerate research, promote learning Japanese, and facilitate international collaborations by providing precise and culturally attuned AI chatbots. As Japan continues to innovate in the AI space, these chatbots could become invaluable tools for various industries, from academia to business.

So, while ChatGPT may have sparked a global fascination with AI chatbots, Japan is determined to develop its own versions that can bridge the linguistic and cultural gaps, making them more than just conversation starters but effective tools in diverse real-world scenarios.

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