The future and potential of generative artificial intelligence ( AI ) lies in the work that goes into creating secure and reliable systems for a variety of practical applications. Japan gets it, many in the West do no.
Japan’s NEC has spent nearly three years developing its own AI computer, creating the best-performing large language model ( LLM) in its offices and businesses, and analyzing various AI products. When they work effectively, they will be marketed to paying customers.
NEC is Japan’s leading company of software-based solutions for business, industry, and social network, as well as Japan’s largest supplier of technology and communication technology.
An LLM is an AI engine that uses heavy learning ( machine learning based on neuronal network ) and a large database to compile data and create human language-based language quickly.
Since the trials began in May 2023, NEC executive vice president and chief technology officer ( CTO ) Motoo Nishihara recently told the Nikkei newspaper that his company has developed the AI capacity to cut the time needed to prepare documents in half and cut the time to record meetings from 30 minutes to five.
NEC furthermore mentions reductions of up to 80 % in the amount of time it takes to make source code for domestic system development. The company’s conceptual Artificial system is being used about 10, 000 times a time by nearly 20, 000 workers, according to reports.  ,
The AI computer from NEC started working in March 2023. It has reportedly the highest computing power among Japanese supercomputers, with 928 graphics processing units ( GPUs ) from Nvidia and central processing units ( CPUs ) from Intel. It also supports NEC’s proprietary LLMs and other AI operations.
In July 2023, NEC launched its relational AI company, which includes permissions for the use of its LLMs, equipment, software and consulting services. The service includes handling data leaks and errors, as well as creating versions of the knowledge developed by businesses in order to create tools that can use it properly.
According to the Rakuda benchmark survey conducted by YuzuAI, a Tokyo-based organization that encourages collaborative development of the technology, NEC’s Japanese-language LLMs outperform the competition by 59 % to 95 %.
NEC’s LLMs are also flexible and can be linked to industry-specific functions in the fields of math, physics, and business. Small power consumption allows for the company’s smaller LLMs to get top deployed, which can then be combined with cloud computing services.
This makes it possible to automate different operations by breaking down enterprise processes into manageable steps and networks, freely deploying and linking AI models, and managing protection and networks. To make it possible to process real-world events, NEC’s LLMs can also be combined with the company’s scanning and audio-sensing systems.
NEC is recognized as the world’s leading developer of biometric authentication technologies, including face, iris, and fingerprint recognition, according to evaluations from the US National Institute of Standards and Technology ( NIST ). During Covid, masked employees were able to be identified using the experience identification system at NEC’s Tokyo head office.
According to market research company Frost &, Sullivan, NEC is the industry leader in mouth recognition technology applied to airports immigration and board processes, national ID and law enforcement. Overseas markets include Vietnam, India, Europe and the US.
The company claims a competitive advantage as a result of its extensive video recognition AI, which transforms videos into coherent sentences.
NEC finds use for this in fields as diverse as insurance, healthcare, manufacturing, construction and aviation. NEC is first in the US for patents pending for video recognition.
Similarity assessment and location prediction technology can, in another example, cross-referencing with satellite and aerial imagery to identify disasters and their exact locations from a constant flow of images. When combined with an LLM, an ongoing disaster can be quickly described, improving the speed of emergency response.
A specialized LLM using NEC’s cyberattack risk assessment technology can respond to incidents and inquiries quickly with diagnosis results and reports that a person who is n’t an expert can understand.
The time needed to prepare those records and documents can be reduced by half in a project with Tohoku University Hospital, resulting in a reduction in the number of doctors needed. Local government is another area where lengthy paperwork can be greatly reduced with LLMs.
Over the next three years, NEC management is targeting generative AI sales of 50 billion yen ( US$ 335 million ). That is less than 2 % of the company’s total sales, but the figure understates the likely impact on the company’s business.
The development of generative AI and LLMs into business- and industry-specific solutions should result in a significant improvement of NEC’s telecom services, social infrastructure, and national security operations. Additionally, it ought to have a discernible influence on how people perceive AI.
Mark Anderson, CEO of Pattern Computer, an American AI and machine learning company headquartered in Friday Harbor, Washington, asks this question about ChatGPT:
It is worthwhile to ask what the next ten years of AI might look like long after the love affair and pendular blowback have ended, at a time when the world has gone gaga over a piece of software that does little more than reflect our language.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence and Central Intelligence Agency ( CIA ), in its IC OSINT Strategy 2024- 2026 document, writes:
“GAI]generative artificial intelligence ] can be a powerful tool to enable timely and insightful OSINT]open source intelligence ] production, including by aiding the identification of common themes or patterns in underlying data and quickly summarizing large amounts of text. In order to reduce the potential risks of GAI, including inaccuracies and hallucinations, OSINT tradecraft and training must also be updated and refined.
Generative AI blowback, inaccuracies, and hallucinations can be prevented by carefully managed source intelligence and rigorous testing of applications, i .e., the quality control that is essential to any precision manufacturing process, for which Japan is well known. It’s precisely what NEC is now doing.
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