By SHINYA MATSUMOTO/ Staff Writer
November 2, 2023 at 18:03 JST
A sign at Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. (NTT) headquarters in Tokyo’s Otemachi district (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. announced on Nov. 1 that it will offer a large-scale language model (LLM) to companies in March that will be the foundation for generative artificial intelligence learning Japanese.
By specializing in specific industries such as health care, the costs needed for the model to learn and operate can be reduced.
“We would like to position this LLM as a solution for social issues,” NTT President Akira Shimada said at a news conference on Nov. 1.
NTT intends to compete with leading U.S. information technology giants through the offering.
NTT used its long-standing research in natural language processing--which teaches human languages to computers--and independently developed the LLM, named “tsuzumi.”
A key feature is its cost-effectiveness.
While Chat GPT-3 from the U.S. startup Open AI has 175 billion parameters, an indicator of its AI learning scale, tsuzumi comes in two versions: one with 600 million and the other with 7 billion parameters.
Having more parameters allows for processing more complex tasks, but it also comes with the downside of increased power consumption during learning.
By tailoring tsuzumi to specific industries, it can reduce power consumption and the equipment required for its operation.
Trial operations began in October at Kyoto University Hospital and at Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co., which operates call centers.
The service is available in Japanese and English, with plans to add more languages later.
NTT is aiming for annual sales of more than 100 billion yen ($665 million) in fiscal 2027.
More Japanese companies are joining the market of generative AI services.
SoftBank Corp. plans to build an LLM with 350 billion parameters that specializes in the Japanese language by the end of 2024.
NEC Corp. has already begun offering generative AI services that are customized for each company.
Bad dog! Prone to errors, AI chatbot says expo canceled
October 25, 2023
Canon releases ‘game-changing’ chipmaking equipment
October 30, 2023
Universities try to strike balance in students’ use of ChatGPT
April 21, 2023
Study: ChatGPT’s Japanese texts distinct from human writing
September 1, 2023
Survey: Japan Inc. bullish on AI, already in use at 41% of companies
July 26, 2023
Students told not to use ChatGPT on any materials affecting grades
June 22, 2023
A peek through the music industry’s curtain at the producers who harnessed social media to help their idols go global.
A series based on diplomatic documents declassified by Japan’s Foreign Ministry
Here is a collection of first-hand accounts by “hibakusha” atomic bomb survivors.
Cooking experts, chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life.
A series about Japanese-Americans and their memories of World War II
