Japan is remarkably open to AI, but slow to make use of it
The land of Doraemon embraces the new technology in theory but not in practice
WHICH cultural icons come to mind when an American thinks of artificial intelligence (AI)? The cyborgs of the “Terminator” film series, or Hal of Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey”—rogue computer systems that rise up to destroy their human creators. What does a Japanese person recall? Doraemon, the friendly robot helper of an enormously popular eponymous anime series. So goes an anecdote making the rounds in Japanese tech circles. It suggests that Japan is a land of opportunity when it comes to AI.
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This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “Generative fears”
From the October 26th 2024 edition
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