Arab News Japan

TOKYO: Japan and the United States announced two new research partnerships in artificial intelligence on Wednesday between the University of Washington and the University of Tsukuba, and between Carnegie Mellon University and Keio University. These partnerships have been bankrolled by $110 million in combined private sector investment from NVIDIA, Amazon, Arm and Softbank Group, Microsoft, and nine Japanese companies.

The partnerships were announced at a signing ceremony at the US Department of Commerce Research Library in Washington, DC, on Tuesday in the presence of US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel and Japanese Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) MORIYAMA Masahito. 

The announcement coincides with Japanese Prime Minister KISHIDA Fumio’s state visit to the United States.

“Nothing is more important than having trusted partners who can collaborate not only on the technological side of this critical research, but on the ethical side as well,” Ambassador Emanuel said. “With our countries’ shared values and world-leading expertise, these partnerships can help set the standard in this fast-evolving field.”

Artificial intelligence is the third strategic university-corporate partnership initiative concluded between American and Japanese academic institutions and the corporate sector since May 2022, when President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Kishida made a commitment to advance US-Japan science and technology cooperation. Last year, on the sidelines of the G7 Leaders’ Summit in Hiroshima, US and Japanese universities and corporations signed partnerships in quantum computing and semiconductor engineering.

IBM, Google, and Micron invested a combined $210 million to support the new quantum computing and semiconductor academic programs.

“The United States is committed to working with our allies and partners to lead on the development of safe and responsible artificial intelligence and welcome opportunities for collaboration between our institutions in leading edge technology,” US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said. “Today’s announcement will build on President Biden and Prime Minister Kishida’s commitment to advance U.S.-Japan science and technology cooperation to develop a talented global workforce and strengthen economic security in both countries.”