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OpenAI Bids for Japan Business as It Opens Tokyo Office 

Journalists are silhouetted at OpenAI’s press conference about the opening of its first Asia office in Tokyo, Japan April 15, 2024. (Reuters)
Journalists are silhouetted at OpenAI’s press conference about the opening of its first Asia office in Tokyo, Japan April 15, 2024. (Reuters)
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OpenAI Bids for Japan Business as It Opens Tokyo Office 

Journalists are silhouetted at OpenAI’s press conference about the opening of its first Asia office in Tokyo, Japan April 15, 2024. (Reuters)
Journalists are silhouetted at OpenAI’s press conference about the opening of its first Asia office in Tokyo, Japan April 15, 2024. (Reuters)

Microsoft backed artificial intelligence startup OpenAI made a pitch for business in Japan on Monday as it opened its first Asia office in Tokyo.

"This is just the first step in what I hope will be a long-term partnership with the people of Japan, government leaders, businesses and research institutions," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a video message.

The startup, which has caused excitement among consumers since the launch of its ChatGPT generative AI chatbot in late 2022, is looking to grow new sources of revenue globally.

Altman and Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap have hosted hundreds of Fortune 500 company executives in the United States and Britain this month to pitch for business, Reuters has reported.

Last year Altman said he was considering a Japan location after meeting Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. The startup has also opened offices in London and Dublin.

Japan hopes to take advantage of AI as it looks to compete with an increasingly assertive China, accelerate the shift to digital services and alleviate deepening labor shortages.

"We have a backlog of demand," Lightcap told reporters in Tokyo, adding that "we expect a meaningful contribution from Japan over time," without providing details.

OpenAI said it has a custom model optimized for the Japanese language and that Tadao Nagasaki, who was president of Amazon Web Services in Japan, is heading the Japan business.

While the country is seen as a laggard in the technology, local companies including telcos SoftBank and NTT are investing in large language models.

OpenAI's customers in Japan include automaker Toyota Motor, manufacturer Daikin Industries and local government.

Microsoft said last week it would invest $2.9 billion over two years in cloud and AI infrastructure in Japan, part of a wave of investment globally by US tech giants.

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Google Faces More Scrutiny as UK Watchdog Flexes New Digital Competition Powers

The logo of Google LLC is shown at an entrance to one of their buildings in San Diego, California, US, October 9, 2024. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo
The logo of Google LLC is shown at an entrance to one of their buildings in San Diego, California, US, October 9, 2024. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo
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Google Faces More Scrutiny as UK Watchdog Flexes New Digital Competition Powers

The logo of Google LLC is shown at an entrance to one of their buildings in San Diego, California, US, October 9, 2024. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo
The logo of Google LLC is shown at an entrance to one of their buildings in San Diego, California, US, October 9, 2024. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo

Britain's competition watchdog flexed new digital market powers on Monday for the first time with an investigation into Google's search and search ad businesses.

Under beefed-up rules that took effect this month designed to protect consumers and businesses from unfair practices by Big Tech companies, the Competition and Markets Authority said it would determine whether Google should be given “strategic market status” that would require imposing changes to the company's behavior. The investigation adds to global scrutiny that the US tech giant is facing, The AP reported.

The Competition and Markets Authority said it will examine whether Google is using its position in the market to stifle innovation and block rivals. The regulator said it will look in particular at Google's role in shaping the development of new artificial services and interfaces such as “answer engines," in ways that “limit the competitive constraint they impose on Google Search.”

AI-powered chatbots have become increasingly popular with internet users looking for information online. Google last year retooled its search engine so that it now frequently favors responses crafted by artificial intelligence over website links.

Google said in a statement that it "will continue to engage constructively with the CMA to ensure that new rules benefit all types of websites, and still allow people in the UK to benefit from helpful and cutting-edge services.”

AI's potential to transform online search services means fair competition is important, said Sarah Cardell, the UK regulator's chief executive.

“It’s our job to ensure people get the full benefit of choice and innovation in search services and get a fair deal — for example in how their data is collected and stored,” Cardell said in a statement. “And for businesses, whether you are a rival search engine, an advertiser or a news organisation, we want to ensure there is a level playing field for all businesses, large and small, to succeed.”

The CMA will also look into concerns about "exploitative conduct" by Google, including its practice of collecting vast amounts of consumer data without informed consent, and its use of content by website publishers — which could range from major media outlets to startups focusing on narrow subjects — without paying them fairly.

It will also investigate whether Google is giving preference to its own services, such as specialized search shopping or travel services.

The UK investigation is the latest salvo in an onslaught of regulatory pressure that Google is facing on both sides of the Atlantic.

In both the US and Canada, authorities are targeting Google’s ad business with lawsuits accusing the company of anticompetitive or monopolistic conduct in the digital ad industry, which they want to resolve by breaking up the company.

European Union regulators, meanwhile, have been carrying out their own antitrust investigation and signaled that they would push for Google to sell off parts of its business in order to satisfy concerns about its lucrative digital ad business.

The CMA has until October to finish its investigation and said it could, for example, force Google to make changes to its data practices.

The regulator has said it expects to open three to four “strategic market status” investigations of the very largest tech companies in the first year after its new powers took effect.

Shares of Google's parent, Alphabet Inc., were essentially flat before the opening bell Tuesday.