OpenAI Enters Japan, Opens Its First Asian Office in Tokyo

ChatGPT maker OpenAI has opened its first office in Japan, which is also its first in any Asian country. This is a step to expand its global presence and leverage the vast Asian market and talent. The Microsoft backed OpenAI is a leader in generative AI as its tools generate images, texts, and now videos at a quality hard to match. Even giants like Google are struggling to catch up.

OpenAI announces Japanese office

OpenAI has appointed Tadao Nagasaki as the president of its Japanese wing to supervise commercial and market outreach as a part of business development. Speaking of the firm’s expansion in the Asian region, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said,

“We’re excited to be in Japan which has a rich history of people and technology coming together to do more.”

He also said,

“We believe AI will accelerate work by empowering people to be more creative and productive, while also delivering broad value to current and new industries that have yet to be imagined.”

Source: OpenAI.

A blog post from OpenAI said that it is a first step from their side for a long term commitment to the region, and they will provide local businesses with early access to their renowned GPT-4 model with custom solutions by optimizing it for Japanese language.

OpenAI hopeful for long term relations in Japan

The company said that they chose Tokyo for its global leadership in the tech world, its culture of service, and the company also mentioned the community who embraces innovation. According to OpenAI, their new custom model offers improved performance as compared to the previous ones, especially in translation and summarization of the Japanese language. They pointed out that the model is cost effective and is three times faster than its predecessor. 

OpenAI also mentioned ‘Speak’, the most preferred English learning app used in Japan, saying that they observed a 2.8 percent faster explanations in Japanese language when users make a mistake. They said that Speak has seen a cost reduction of 47% in token costs. 

About other businesses, OpenAI mentioned Toyota, Daikin, and Rakuten as some of the major businesses using ChatGPT for more efficiency, especially in data analysis. Along with the businesses, OpenAI mentioned local governments also using their services for public services. The startup, which enjoyed a growth never witnessed in recent times with its successful product ChatGPT, is now expanding its services globally to cater to the markets as per their local needs.

Last week, before the OpenAI launch in Japan, Microsoft also said that they will invest $2.9 billion in Japan to improve and expand its AI infrastructure and to hyperscale its cloud computing infrastructure during the next two years. Microsoft announced its palns of training three million workers and also a Microsoft research lab in Tokyo. The company also said that it will collaborate with the Japanese cabinet to work on strengthening cybersecurity.

The Economy Minister of Japan, Yasutoshi Nishimura, also said that Japan is working on creating a robust base to become a global AI hub. He was speaking to the students of the University of Tokyo. He said that the Japanese government will support startups and businesses. He also revealed the government’s intentions for homebrewing semiconductors.

Find OpenAI’s note here and Microsoft’s note here.