New bill lets government publicize names of firms who maliciously use AI
The government at a Cabinet meeting Friday adopted a bill allowing it to investigate businesses, give them guidance and disclose, as needed, their names in cases of human rights abuses and other malicious activities related to the use of artificial intelligence (AI).
The government hopes that the bill, which is aimed at balancing AI development and measures to deal with risks related to the new technology, will be passed into law during the current ordinary session of parliament.
The legislation is expected to "enhance the effectiveness of risk countermeasures, including through investigations into cases where people's rights and interests have been infringed," science and technology policy minister Minoru Kiuchi told a news conference while noting that the bill does not include "excessive regulations" that could impede technological innovation.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Japan Times
15 hours ago
- Japan Times
Meta set to throw billions at startup that leads AI data market
Three months after the Chinese artificial intelligence developer DeepSeek upended the tech world with a model that rivaled America's best, a 28-year-old AI executive named Alexandr Wang came to Capitol Hill to tell policymakers what they needed to do to maintain U.S. dominance. The U.S. needs to establish a "national AI data reserve,' supply enough power for data centers and avoid an onerous patchwork of state-level rules, Wang said at the April hearing. Lawmakers welcomed his feedback. "It's good to see you again here in Washington,' Republican Representative Neal Dunn of Florida said. "You're becoming a regular up here.' Wang, the chief executive officer of Scale AI, may not be a household name in the same way OpenAI's Sam Altman has become. But he and his company have gained significant influence in tech and policy circles in recent years. Scale AI uses an army of contractors to label the data that tech firms such as Meta Platforms and OpenAI use to train and improve their AI models, and helps companies make custom AI applications. Increasingly, it's enlisting doctorate holders, nurses and other experts with advanced degrees to help develop more sophisticated models, according to a person familiar with the matter. Put simply: The three pillars of AI are chips, talent and data. And Scale AI is a dominant player in the last of those. Now, the startup's stature is set to grow even more. Meta is in talks to make a multibillion-dollar investment in Scale AI. The financing may exceed $10 billion in value, making it one of the largest private company funding events of all time. The startup was valued at about $14 billion in 2024, as part of a funding round that included backing from Meta. In many ways, Scale AI's rise mirrors that of OpenAI. Both companies were founded roughly a decade ago and bet that the industry was then on the cusp of what Wang called an "inflection point of AI." Their CEOs, who are friends and briefly lived together, are both adept networkers and have served as faces of the AI sector before Congress. And OpenAI, too, has been on the receiving end of an 11-figure investment from a large tech firm. Scale AI's trajectory has shaped, and been shaped by, the AI boom that OpenAI unleashed. In its early years, Scale AI focused more on labeling images of cars, traffic lights and street signs to help train the models used to build self-driving cars. But it has since helped to annotate and curate the massive amounts of text data needed to build the so-called large language models that power chatbots such as ChatGPT. These models learn by drawing patterns from the data and their respective labels. Meta is in talks to make a multibillion-dollar investment in Scale AI. | Bloomberg At times, that work has made Scale AI a lightning rod for criticisms about the unseen workforce in places such as Kenya and the Philippines that supports AI development. Scale AI has faced scrutiny for relying on thousands of contractors overseas who were paid relatively little to weed through reams of online data, with some saying they have suffered psychological trauma from the content they're asked to review. In a 2019 interview, Wang said the company's contract workers earn "good' pay — "in the 60th to 70th percentile of wages in their geography.' Scale AI spokesperson Joe Osborne noted that the U.S. Department of Labor recently dropped an investigation into the company's compliance with fair labor regulations. Its business has evolved. More tech firms have begun to experiment with using synthetic, AI-generated data to train AI systems, potentially reducing the need for some of the services Scale AI historically provided. However, the leading AI labs are also struggling to get enough high-quality training data to build more advanced AI systems that are capable of fielding complex tasks as well as, or better than, humans. To meet that need, Scale AI has increasingly turned to better-paid contractors with graduate degrees to improve AI systems. These experts participate in a process known as reinforcement learning, which rewards a system for correct answers and punishes it for incorrect responses. The experts who work with Scale AI are tasked with constructing tricky problems — tests, essentially — for the models to solve, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the information is private. As of early 2025, 12% of the company's pool of contributors who work on the process of improving these models had a doctorate in fields such as molecular biology and more than 40% had a master's degree, law degree or MBA in their field, the person said. Much of this process is aimed at companies that want to use AI for medical and legal applications, the person said. One area of focus, for example, is getting AI models to better answer questions regarding tax law, which can differ greatly from country to country and even state to state. Bets like those are driving significant growth for the company. Scale AI generated about $870 million in revenue in 2024 and expects $2 billion in revenue this year. Scale AI has seen demand for its network of experts increase in the wake of DeepSeek, the person familiar with the matter said, as more companies invest in models that mimic human reasoning and carry out more complicated tasks. Scale AI has also deepened its relationship with the U.S. government through defense deals. Wang, a China hawk, has cozied up to lawmakers on the hill who are concerned about China's ascendance in AI. And Michael Kratsios, a former executive at Scale AI, is now one of U.S. President Donald Trump's top tech aides, helping to steer U.S. policy on AI. For Meta, partnering more deeply with Scale AI may simultaneously help it keep pace with AI rivals such as Google and OpenAI, and also help it build deeper ties with the U.S. government at a time when it's pushing more into defense tech. For Scale AI, a tie-up with Meta offers a powerful and deep-pocketed ally. It would also be a fitting full-circle moment for Wang. Shortly after launching Scale AI, Wang said he was asked by one venture capitalist when he knew he wanted to build a startup. In response, Wang said he "rattled off some silly answer about being inspired by The Social Network,' the film about the founding of Facebook.
Japan Times
a day ago
- Japan Times
Meta in talks for Scale AI investment that could top $10 billion
Meta Platforms is in talks to make a multibillion-dollar investment into artificial intelligence startup Scale AI, according to people familiar with the matter. The financing could exceed $10 billion in value, some of the people said, making it one of the largest private company funding events of all time. The terms of the deal are not finalized and could still change, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private information. A representative for Scale did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Meta declined to comment. Scale AI, whose customers include Microsoft and OpenAI, provides data labeling services to help companies train machine-learning models and has become a key beneficiary of the generative AI boom. The startup was last valued at about $14 billion in 2024, in a funding round that included backing from Meta and Microsoft. Earlier this year, Bloomberg reported that Scale was in talks for a tender offer that would value it at $25 billion. This would be Meta's biggest ever external AI investment, and a rare move for the company. The social media giant has before now mostly depended on its in-house research, plus a more open development strategy, to make improvements in its AI technology. Meanwhile, Big Tech peers have invested heavily: Microsoft has put more than $13 billion into OpenAI while both and Alphabet have put billions into rival Anthropic. Part of those companies' investments have been through credits to use their computing power. Meta doesn't have a cloud business, and it's unclear what format Meta's investment will take. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg has made AI Meta's top priority, and said in January that the company would spend as much as $65 billion on related projects this year. The company's push includes an effort to make Llama the industry standard worldwide. Meta's AI chatbot — already available on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — is used by 1 billion people per month. Scale, co-founded in 2016 by CEO Alexandr Wang, has been growing quickly: The startup generated revenue of $870 million last year and expects sales to more than double to $2 billion in 2025, Bloomberg previously reported. Scale plays a key role in making AI data available for companies. Because AI is only as good as the data that goes into it, Scale uses scads of contract workers to tidy up and tag images, text and other data that can then be used for AI training. Scale and Meta share an interest in defense tech. Last week, Meta announced a new partnership with defense contractor Anduril Industries to develop products for the U.S. military, including an AI-powered helmet with virtual and augmented reality features. Meta has also granted approval for U.S. government agencies and defense contractors to use its AI models. The company is already partnering with Scale on a program called Defense Llama — a version of Meta's Llama large language model intended for military use. Scale has increasingly been working with the U.S. government to develop AI for defense purposes. Earlier this year the startup said it won a contract with the Defense Department to work on AI agent technology. The company called the contract "a significant milestone in military advancement.'
Japan Times
a day ago
- Japan Times
Taiwan's Yageo plans to keep Shibaura's AI technology in Japan
Taiwan's Yageo said it would keep Shibaura Electronics's most advanced technology in Japan if it successfully acquires the artificial intelligence sensor maker. The comments from Yageo founder and Chairman Pierre Chen come as Tokyo seeks to strike a balance between shareholder returns while ensuring cutting-edge AI technology stays at home. Shibaura's high-precision thermistors are key for monitoring the internal temperature of electronic devices to prevent overheating. That's especially important in AI, where data centers with large clusters of high-performance servers churn through troves of data. "It is not in Yageo's interest to see Shibaura's technology transfer to countries that Japan considers to be unfriendly,' Chen told reporters in Taipei on Saturday. "We will impose even stricter controls on the technology to make sure it doesn't get leaked.' Yageo is facing off against Nintendo supplier Minebea Mitsumi in its bid for Shibaura and is offering ¥6,200 for each Shibaura share. Minebea last offered ¥5,500 a share. Yageo's tender offer period ends June 19, though Chen wouldn't say if the company would consider an extension. Chen said Yageo officials will meet Shibaura management in Tokyo during the week of June 16 to discuss the offer. The Taiwanese company has had good communications with Japan's powerful Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, according to Chen. A Shibaura official declined to comment. Calls to METI outside business hours went unanswered. Yageo's bid for Shibaura has triggered a backlash in some Japanese business circles resistant to takeover bids from foreign companies. Tokyo officials are also split on such overtures. Regulators are trying to bolster corporate transparency and shareholder returns by encouraging companies to unwind cross shareholdings. But that — and a cheap yen — is also making it easier to initiate takeovers of Japanese companies.
