In a strategic move to tap into the Asian market, OpenAI has announced the opening of its first office in Tokyo, Japan, alongside the release of a custom GPT-4 model optimized for the Japanese language.
The decision to establish a presence in Tokyo was driven by Japan's global leadership in technology, its culture of service, and a community that embraces innovation.
"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," said Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, in a video message announcing the expansion.
To spearhead the company's efforts in Japan, OpenAI has appointed Tadao Nagasaki, former president of Amazon Web Services Japan, as the President of OpenAI Japan. Nagasaki will lead the company's commercial and market engagement efforts, building a local team to advance Global Affairs, Go-to-Market, Communications, Operations, and other functions to serve the Japanese market.
As part of its commitment to the region, OpenAI is providing local businesses with early access to a custom GPT-4 model specifically optimized for the Japanese language. This model offers improved performance in translating and summarizing Japanese text, operates up to 3x faster than its predecessor, and is more cost-effective. Speak, a popular English learning app in Japan, has already reported a 2.8x faster tutor explanation rate in Japanese and a 47% reduction in token cost when using the custom model.
Leading Japanese businesses, such as Daikin, Rakuten, and TOYOTA Connected, are already leveraging ChatGPT Enterprise to automate complex business processes, assist in data analysis, and optimize internal reporting. The technology is also being used by local governments, like Yokosuka City, to improve the efficiency of public services. Impressively, 80% of Yokosuka City employees have reported increased productivity since being granted access to ChatGPT.
The company's expansion into Japan follows successful expansions into London and Dublin and is part of its strategy to grow its global presence and learn from diverse perspectives. OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, expressed his enthusiasm for Japan's rich history of technological innovation and his belief in AI's potential to empower creativity and productivity.
"Growing our presence across the world allows us to learn from a wide range of diverse perspectives, which is critical to our mission of ensuring AGI benefits all of humanity," Altman emphasized.
Japan's government has been a key global voice on AI policy, chairing the G7 Hiroshima AI Process and working to implement AI policies that align with its goals for human dignity, diversity and inclusion, and sustainable societies. OpenAI looks forward to contributing to the local ecosystem and exploring how AI can help address societal challenges in the region, such as rural depopulation and labor shortages.
Richard Banfield
OpenAI's expansion into Japan comes on the heels of a substantial $2.9 billion investment by Microsoft, OpenAI's largest investor, aimed at bolstering the country's digital infrastructure, AI skills, and cybersecurity capabilities. This investment, the largest in Microsoft's 46-year history in Japan, will effectively double the company's existing financial commitment to expand its AI and cloud infrastructure across the nation. The enhanced digital capacity will provide advanced computing resources critical for accelerating AI workloads, aligning with Japan's Generative AI Accelerator Challenge (GENIAC) program.