SoftBank's move comes as part of its efforts to play a role in the AI industry, with the company having invested heavily in AI over the years. The company's CEO, Junichi Miyakawa, stated that generative AI will be a technology of incomparable importance and that the development of a domestically-produced generative AI will make it more suited to Japanese business practice and culture. SoftBank also plans to establish a multi-generative AI system, selecting the most appropriate model for clients' needs from multiple models developed by companies such as OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google.
Key takeaways:
- SoftBank has launched a new company, SB Intuitions, to research and develop Large Language Models (LLM) specialized for the Japanese language and to build and sell generative AI services based on Japanese.
- SB Intuitions will be 100% owned by SoftBank and will only use data housed in Japan-based data centers.
- The company plans to operate the service using a computing platform built on NVIDIA GPUs, which will be online before the end of March 2024.
- SoftBank has a strategic alliance with Microsoft and plans to develop a multi-generative AI system, selecting the most appropriate model for clients' needs from among multiple models developed by OpenAI, Microsoft, Google and other companies.