The Japanese and U.S. governments will collaborate on the development of artificial intelligence (AI) specialized for scientific research, it has been learned. The joint efforts will include data sharing for training AI and the joint use of supercomputers for AI development. The allied countries will work together in response to the anticipated intensified competition, accelerated by AI, for scientific discoveries among countries.
The Japan-U.S. collaboration is expected to be led through cooperation between the government-affiliated research institutes of RIKEN, which is under the jurisdiction of the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry, and Argonne National Laboratory, which is under the U.S. Energy Department.
RIKEN and Argonne are home to two of the world’s top ranked high-performance supercomputers — Fugaku at RIKEN and Aurora at Argonne. As AI development requires a large amount of computation, both supercomputers will be utilized, and cooperation will be deepened in sharing data and results. The two sides aim to reach an agreement this spring. The Japanese and U.S. governments have already separately begun to develop AI that is specialized for research by inputting data results from experiments and research papers. Japan plans to focus its development on the life and medical science field, such as drug discovery, as well as the materials field, such as new materials. The Japanese government also plans to make the developed AI available to companies and universities to strengthen Japan’s industrial competitiveness. The ministry has earmarked about ¥12 billion for development in the fiscal 2023 supplementary budget
https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/politics/politics-government/20240212-168320/
