Japan is expected to invest about 6 billion USD to develop a domestic artificial intelligence (AI) model. The project will be undertaken by Noetra - an alliance of many businesses, including SoftBank and Sony.
Many countries around the world are promoting the development of sovereign AI models to reduce excessive dependence on US and Chinese technology.
According to Japanese media, the government will support a maximum of 1,000 billion yen (about 6.1 billion USD) in the next 5 years, depending on project implementation results.
The number of businesses participating in Noetra is expected to increase to 44 companies, including businesses in the automotive, electronics and other manufacturing sectors as well as finance and logistics.
Noetra will focus specifically on physical AI.
On the same day, July 1st, the Japanese government also announced a revised version of the AI robot development strategy.
Unlike AI systems that only interact with users through software on the screen, physical AI is the introduction of artificial intelligence into real-world devices and environments, such as self-driving cars, factory robots, or even man-shaped robots as housekeepers.
This strategy aims to deploy about 10 million robots by 2040. At the same time, with the addition of the fields of restaurants, food processing and healthcare, we will strongly promote the application of robots on a social scale in 18 fields" - Japanese Industry Minister Ryosei Akazawa said.
He added that Japan will build and expand data infrastructure to serve physical AI and robots, promoting the inherent strengths of this country.
In the context of an aging and declining population, Japan expects robots to help compensate for labor shortages.
Last month, Japan announced a 14-year growth strategy, aiming to mobilize 370,000 billion yen (about 2,300 billion USD) from the public and private sectors to invest in 17 fields, including physical AI, semiconductor chips, quantum technology and fusion reactions.
Meanwhile, South Korea - this week also announced a record public-private investment plan, worth hundreds of billions of USD, to develop AI data centers and the chip manufacturing industry in the coming years.
