SoftBank president and CEO Junichi Miyakawa, on January 1st, said he anticipates that “2025 will be a year of unprecedented upheavals hinging on AI.” In a New Year message, he mentioned that since ChatGPT was introduced in November 2022, in the space of less than two years it has evolved to the extent that it can generate text, images, videos, and even audio, possessing “advanced PhD-level reasoning abilities”. He added it is predicted that AGI (Artificial General Intelligence), which is said to have “ten times the intellect of all humanity, will emerge, and AI will begin to function like personal assistants.”
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SoftBank to Advance AI Infrastructure
“As such advanced forms of AI are implemented and utilised across various industries and society, the value of the infrastructure supporting AI will increase, making the role that SoftBank plays increasingly important. SoftBank will further promote the construction of a foundation that supports this future AI society and the advancement of communication networks, pushing forward with the social implementation and utilisation of AI, with the aim to become the company that is most needed by people and society,” he added.
The CEO also said, “Around the world, the development and provision of various AI services, including services based on generative AI, continued to appear in rapid succession, making 2024 a year where we could truly feel the arrival of an AI-driven society.”
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SoftBank’s Commitment to Social Infrastructure
He further explained the progress toward realising next-generation social infrastructure, a core component of our Long-term Vision made by SoftBank in 2024. This includes the public release of homegrown Japanese large language models (LLMs) with 460 billion parameters for research purposes and the development of the AI-RAN integrated solution, AITRAS.
He concluded by saying, “Providing Answers to Social Issues,” we will continue to address social challenges and strive to contribute to people’s happiness through technology.
