The governments of the US and Japan announced new academic partnerships in the field of artificial intelligence with funding of $110 million

The governments of the United States and Japan today announced new academic partnerships in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) that will receive $110 million in funding from technology giants such as NVIDIA, Microsoft, Amazon and a number of Japanese companies.

Under the agreement, the University of Washington will merge with the University of Tsukuba, and Carnegie Mellon University with Keio University in Tokyo. These partnerships will focus on research in the following key areas:

• Multimodal and multilingual learning: Developing AI systems that can process and understand information from different sources, such as text, images and audio, in different languages.
• Embedded AI or AI for robots: Development of AI systems that can be embedded in robots and other devices to perform real-world tasks.
• Autonomous AI-Human Symbiosis: Developing AI systems that can effectively collaborate with humans to achieve common goals.
• Life Sciences: Using AI to improve research and development in life sciences such as medicine and biology.
• Using AI for Scientific Discovery: Developing AI systems that can help scientists make new discoveries and advance scientific progress.

The partnership between the University of Washington and the University of Tsukuba will be effective due to the location of both educational institutions in the science and technology centers of Seattle and Tsukuba, respectively.

US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida welcomed the creation of new partnerships in the field of AI research. They reaffirmed their commitment to further advancing the Hiroshima Process on AI and strengthening cooperation between national AI security institutes.

These new partnerships are the third wave of university-corporate initiatives between U.S. and Japanese companies toward joint investment in science and technology research pioneered by Biden and Kishida.

These partnerships are expected to contribute to:

• To improve cooperation and exchange of knowledge between AI researchers in the US and Japan.
• Developers of new and innovative AI technologies.
• Strengthening the economic competitiveness of both countries.
• Ensuring the ethical and responsible development of AI.