In an effort to enhance cooperation on the swiftly developing technology, President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida have partnered with Amazon.com Inc. and Nvidia Corp. to finance a new collaborative artificial intelligence research program.
The University of Washington in Seattle and Tsukuba University outside of Tokyo will collaborate on the $50 million project, a senior US official briefed reporters prior to the official visit at the White House on Wednesday. Additionally, a separate collaborative AI research program between Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and Tokyo’s Keio University is being planned by the two nations.
The push for greater research into artificial intelligence comes as the Biden administration is weighing a series of new regulations designed to minimize the risks of AI technology, which has developed as a key focus for tech companies. The White House announced late last month that federal agencies have until the end of the year to determine how they will assess, test, and monitor the impact of government use of AI technology.
In addition, Microsoft Corp. announced on Tuesday that it will invest $2.9 billion to expand its cloud computing and artificial intelligence infrastructure in Japan. This funding is on top of the university-led initiatives. Tuesday saw a meeting between Kishida and Brad Smith, president of Microsoft. The company recently announced plans to open an AI and robotics-focused lab in Japan.
Japanese business executives were urged by Kishida, the head of Asia’s second-biggest economy, to invest more in developing technologies on Tuesday.
“Your contributions will facilitate Japan’s economic expansion — which will additionally serve as capital for additional investments from Japan to the US,” Kishida stated during a roundtable discussion with prominent business figures in Washington.