ChatGPT developer willing to open office in Japan amid concern over use

Tokyo [Japan], April 10 : A ChatGPT developer on Monday said that his company is planning to open an office in Japan amid the growing concerns about the chatbot's unauthorised collection of personal data and impact on learning environments, Kyodo News reported.

Chief Executive of US-based OpenAI, Sam Altman met Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo, as the dangers of artificial intelligence are expected to be discussed at the Group of Seven ministerial gathering on digital issues, which Japan will host in late April.

Talking to reporters, Altman said that he explained to PM Kishida, who will preside over the G-7 summit in his constituency of Hiroshima in May, about the advantages and disadvantages of ChatGPT while saying the premier showed an interest in the AI technology.

Chatbots are computer programmes that have been programmed to process and replicate human-like conversations with users utilising vast amounts of data from the internet, as per Kyodo News.

ChatGPT, which stands for Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer and was introduced in November 2022 as a prototype, is powered by a machine-learning model that mimics the functioning of the human brain.

The discussions between Kishida and Altman took place at a time when several nations have tightened restrictions on the usage of ChatGPT because of concerns that OpenAI may be invading users' privacy by gathering enormous amounts of personal information without their consent, Kyodo News reported.

Altman has stated a desire to discuss AI technology and his company's ChatGPT with politicians all over the world.

The education ministry in Japan has been trying to formulate guidelines regarding the use of ChatGPT and other AI chatbots in schools as fears have been mounting over their effects on students' writing and thinking skills.

Altman, after he met with Kishida, said, "We talked about the upsides of this technology and how to mitigate the downsides," hoping that AI chatbots will succeed in Japan as models of them become more suitable for the nation's language and culture.

Hirokazu Matsuno, the chief cabinet secretary, stated on Monday that Japan will investigate adopting chatbot technology to reduce the administrative demands placed on public servants.

The top government spokesman did however emphasise that the idea could only be implemented if concerns regarding handling private data leaks and secret information were allayed, Kyodo News reported.