Lessons and observations from my meetings with Japan’s government and science agencies on critical tech, critical infrastructure, quantum, AI, and AI Safety! 🇯🇵🇦🇺

A great two days. I had the privilege of engaging with the Cabinet Office, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), AI Safety Institute Secretariat (AISI), Information-technology Protection Agency (IPA), Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), Global Research and Development Center for Business by Quantum-AI Technology (G-QuAT), Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), and NEC GenAI Hub. Here are some key takeaways:

🌐 𝐈𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲 𝐢𝐧 𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐦-𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬. Despite the uncertainty surrounding the arrival of powerful quantum computers, Japan has wisely invested in “quantum engineering.” This includes a robust quantum software stack, AI-quantum cloud, system-level simulation, and device measurement. By doing so, companies can capitalise on early wins while being prepared to seamlessly transition their use cases across quantum and AI compute infrastructures.
🎯 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐢𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐀𝐈 𝐒𝐚𝐟𝐞𝐭𝐲, 𝐟𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬/𝐠𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐤𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐬. While there seems to be a rehashed process/governance framework/standard emerging every week, SMEs are not necessarily eager to set up another process, committee, or role. What they desperately need are technical standards and concrete practices/measurements. My visit to AISI was particularly interesting as both Australia and Japan are embarking on new AI safety initiatives. We realised we have so much to share, harmonise, and collaborate on in the future.
⚖️ 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐚 𝐛𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲 by providing research infrastructures across countries and granting trusted research institutions access to frontier AI systems for external evaluation. Interestingly, Yoshua Bengio had met with the same people a few days before me, talking about the approach. I happily supported it with a few lessons from Australia, including CSIRO’s Data61‘s use-without-sharing and disclosure control technologies to enable a balanced enclave environment.
🤝 To foster concrete collaboration between the two countries, we need to encourage young 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐦𝐨𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐣𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡.

A huge thanks to the Australian Embassy in Tokyo, especially Oi Yee Claudette Chan, for arranging many enlightening discussions! 🙏