Japan Adapts Generative AI for Unique Language and Culture
When thinking of Japan, futuristic cities and robots often come to mind. It’s no surprise, then, that the country has embraced generative artificial intelligence (AI). For instance, many government offices in Japan now utilize ChatGPT to streamline administrative tasks. However, they have encountered a challenge – the AI bot struggles to accurately translate the complex Japanese language. As a result, Japan is developing a new version of the AI tool. This issue is captivating as it highlights the collision between culture and modern technology. It is likely that other countries will soon face similar situations, where they will need to adapt ChatGPT and similar tools to meet the needs and beliefs of their own people. Given Japan’s track record of successfully blending modern technology with ancient traditions, it can serve as a valuable guide for other nations. This article will delve into why Japan needs new generative AI tools and how it plans to create them. Additionally, we will explore how AI bots are created to provide further insight into this development.
Why Japan Needs a Customized ChatGPT
Japan is currently developing its own versions of ChatGPT due to concerns that AI systems trained on datasets in other languages may not fully understand the intricacies of the Japanese language and culture. Tohoku University researcher Keisuke Sakaguchi explains that the current iteration of ChatGPT only translates Japanese into English. “Current public language models (LLMs), such as GPT, excel in English but often fall short in Japanese due to differences in the alphabet system, limited data, and other factors,” Sakaguchi told Nature. These issues stem from the design of ChatGPT, which was created by OpenAI, a company based in the United States where English is the predominant language. Therefore, it is natural that the developers focused on training large language models in English, which limits the functionality of ChatGPT for countries like Japan that do not have English-speaking majorities. The Japanese language, Nihongo, is arguably more complex than English. While English has only 26 letters, Nihongo has three character sets: Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. Hiragana and Katakana function similarly to English, as their characters are combined to form words. Kanji, on the other hand, consists of thousands of Chinese characters with overlapping meanings. Nature reports that there are 50,000 Kanji characters, many of which are no longer commonly used. The challenges arise when the LLM connects user queries with this vast array of characters. As a result, Sakaguchi notes that ChatGPT “sometimes generates extremely rare characters that most people have never seen before, and weird unknown words result.” Most machine learning models apply the structure of English to Japanese translations, often overlooking the nuances between casual and formal forms of communication that are crucial in Japanese society. Consequently, Japanese users find the results generated by Japan ChatGPT to be awkward and unnatural to read.
Developing a Better Chatbot for Japan
The creators of ChatGPT have developed a specialized LLM ranking system called Rakuda to build a better Japan ChatGPT model. Cofounder Sam Passaglia and his team asked ChatGPT to compare the cultural appropriateness and fluidity of answers to standard prompts. “Certainly, Japanese LLMs are getting much better, but they are far behind GPT-4. This is not technically insurmountable but just a question of resources,” Passaglia explained. To speed up the development process, various Japanese government institutions and universities plan to leverage Fugaku, one of the world’s fastest supercomputers. Fugaku has the potential to significantly reduce the training time for this new large language model. However, Japan may even surpass the capabilities of Fugaku with another project. The country’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology is funding an AI program for scientific research. Makoto Taiji, deputy director at RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research, expressed, “We hope to dramatically accelerate the scientific research cycle and expand the search space.” Shotaro Kinoshita, a researcher in medical technology at the Keio University School of Medicine in Tokyo, added, “If a Japanese version of ChatGPT can be made accurate, it is expected to bring better results for people who want to learn Japanese or conduct research on Japan.”
Building an AI Chatbot: The Basics
Understanding the Japan ChatGPT projects can be challenging without knowledge of the fundamentals behind creating an AI assistant. Here are the steps involved:
- Define the purpose of your chatbot. Determine whether your chatbot will answer customer inquiries or automatically send emails, for example.
- Select an AI platform that aligns with your chatbot’s requirements. Options such as IBM or Alibaba Cloud are available, or you can create a custom platform tailored to your company’s needs.
- Develop the AI logic, which involves defining the processes and algorithms that will produce responses to queries. This is a complex process that goes beyond the scope of this article, but further information can be found in our comprehensive guide.
- Train your AI model using extensive datasets. Your IT team must ensure that the language model processes the data correctly and promptly address any errors.
- Build and test your AI program. Seek feedback from users, such as your employees or a team of volunteers, to gauge the readiness and effectiveness of your software.
- Deploy your AI assistant and continuously monitor its performance. Have your IT team prepared to address any issues that may arise.
Conclusion
ChatGPT’s shortcomings in understanding Japanese cultural norms and grammar rules necessitate the development of a Japan ChatGPT model. Japan is not the only country facing this challenge – other nations like China and the Philippines may also need tailored language models to cater to their unique linguistic and cultural contexts. Japan’s efforts to adapt generative AI to its language and culture can serve as an example and guide for other countries facing similar obstacles. To keep up with the latest digital trends and insights, visit Inquirer Tech.
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