US President Biden, Kishida enlist Amazon, Nvidia to fund AI research

By Justin Sink

President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida have enlisted Amazon.com Inc. and Nvidia Corp. to fund a new joint artificial intelligence research program, as the two nations look to improve collaboration around the quickly emerging technology.
 

The $50 million project will be a joint effort between the University of Washington in Seattle and Tsukuba University outside Tokyo, according to a senior US official who briefed reporters before Wednesday’s official visit at the White House. The two countries are also planning a separate joint AI research program linking Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh with Tokyo’s Keio University.

The push for greater research into artificial intelligence comes as the Biden administration is weighing a series of new regulations designed to minimize the risks of AI technology, which has developed as a key focus for tech companies. The White House announced late last month that federal agencies have until the end of the year to determine how they will assess, test, and monitor the impact of government use of AI technology.

The university-led initiatives come in addition to a $2.9 billion investment from Microsoft Corp. announced Tuesday that would bolster the company’s artificial intelligence and cloud computing infrastructure in Japan. Kishida met Tuesday with Microsoft President Brad Smith and the company said in a statement it plans to open a new lab in Japan focused on AI and robotics. 

On Tuesday, Kishida urged American business executives to increase investment in emerging technologies in Japan, Asia’s second-largest economy.

“Your investments will enable Japan’s economic growth — which will also be capital for more investments from Japan to the US,” Kishida said at a roundtable with business leaders in Washington.