Visit to UCRI / CiNet

On October 2 and 3, Dr. HARAYAMA Yuko, Secretary General of the GPAI Tokyo Expert Support Center (Tokyo ESC) visited the Universal Communication Research Institute (UCRI) and the Center for Information and Neural Networks (CiNet) at the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT). During the visit, Secretary General Harayama received explanations about NICT's AI-related initiatives from Dr. UCHIMOTO Kiyotaka, Director General of UCRI, Dr. KITAZAWA Shigeru, Director of CiNet, and other representatives, and exchanged views regarding future collaborations.

On the 2nd, Director General Uchimoto of UCRI explained the progress of multilingual translation technologies that are being implemented in society. He also demonstrated the Multiple Sound Spot Synthesis Technology, which delivers different sounds to different directions. Dr. TORISAWA Kentaro, NICT Fellow, Associate Director General of UCRI, presented on generative AI using Japanese language datasets, and Dr. ZETTSU Koji, Director General of Big Data Integration Research Center, introduced an AI platform for handling multimodal data.

On the 3rd, Dr. OIWA Kazuhiro, NICT Fellow, Associate Director General of CiNet, provided an overview of various neuroscience technology research projects that NICT has been working on in the field of information and communications technology since 1994, and reported on the current situation of social implementation through collaboration with companies. The visit included a tour of Japan’s leading MRI and MEG equipment at the CiNet, and discussions on the relationship between neuroscience and AI, particularly the impact of the emergence of generative AI on neuroscience research trends and efforts related to ELSI.

Throughout the visit, there was active discussion on how to bring NICT's research and development results into practical use in society. In order to address the rapidly evolving challenges in the field of AI, it was agreed that the newly established AI Research and Development Promotion Unit within NICT, in cooperation with the Tokyo ESC, would collaborate across the organization to tackle these issues.