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Interview with Yoshi Tanaka, Director, SoftBank - Speaker at Global Artificial Intelligence Conference April 2018 Posted on : Apr 22 - 2018

We feature speakers at Global Artificial Intelligence Conference - April 27 - 29 2018 – Seattle to catch up and find out what he or she is working on now and what's coming next. This week we're talking to Yoshi Tanaka, Director, SoftBank Topic - "Business Transformation Through AI - Explosive Development Of AI Powered By Big Data"

Interview with Yoshi Tanaka

1. Tell us about yourself and your background.

I have been engaged with more than 30 year-experiences in telecommunication industries and  have been engaged in mobile carrier for 17years until now.

The background- Marketing, Corporate Planning, Business Development. I have been working in Silicon Valley since October, 2013. My  mission is to scout business and technology partners for SoftBank Corporation (Japan ) and SoftBank Group companies all over the world. It is not for incumbent telco business. I'm seeking for the next generation carrier's business because the current carrier's business is maturing and decreasing. I'm looking at the next three decades landscape to create new business stream based on the current telco assets.

The current big three focus is IoT, AI and Robotics. Particularly , I’ m looking at AI x IoT, AI x Robotics business. Vertical wise, retail tech (including payment and omani channel), connected vehicles (including autonomous vehicle drones) , building/office management, smart homes, smart city and healthcare.

2.  What have you been working on recently?

I have been working on A! x IoT, A! x Robot projects, more than 20 projects together with Japanese big enterprises.  Most of the business model are B2B or B2B2C. Very recently, I have just started looking at consumer business as well.  Direct to Consumer, Consumer to Consumer, Sharing Economy etc.

3. Tell me about the right tool you used recently to solve customer problem?

I try to use the mixture of the both open source tool and startup's proprietary tool for each problem. The tool is not just a final answer for customers. Right open source, algorithm, right statical model analysis, right data abstraction/cleansing, keeping privacy...  I prefer the best combination of the open source and proprietary tool.

4. Where are we now today in terms of the state of artificial intelligence, and where do you think we’ll go over the next five years?

In principal I agree the comments of Davood Shamsi, Researcher, AOL/Verizon.

Data and process power has changed our ability to solve more complicated problems with computers. There has been a significant progress in image processing, and voice        recognition. This will open doors for more automation in near future. In next 5 years, we might be able to fully automate simple task such as driving in highways, and typical roads. I don't expect a change that undermines role of human in the world.  

5. There is a negative perception around AI and even some leading technology folks have come out against it or saying that it’s actually potentially harmful to society. Where are you coming down on those discussions? How do you explain this in a way that maybe has a more positive beneficial impact for society?

 I agree with the comments of Jim mchugh, VP, NVIDIA

It is important to think about all the amazing positive outcomes that we are starting to see from AI. As we look to a world where autonomous driving vehicles will greatly reduce the number of fatalities in the world, we should consider the benefits we will see in reduced insurance coverage and roadside injuries. As medical research continues to leverage AI to offer better diagnosis and more effectively treat diseases based on our genome structure, we will see a reduction in health care costs while living longer. Crop production will become more efficient and food supplies less expensive. Distribution will become more efficient and retail experiences will be easier.

All of these benefits and more will raise the quality of life on a global scale.  SoftBank 30-year corporate vision is " AI redefined and change all industries" SoftBank will be a good position of AI driving industrial revolution in the next three decades.

6. Will progress in AI and robotics take away the majority of jobs currently done by humans? Which jobs are most at risk?

I agree with the comments of Jim mchugh, VP, NVIDIA.

In addition to Jim's comments, I would emphasize the Japan's social problems we are facing today and to be more critical in the next 10 years. Japan’s society is rapidly aging.  By 2022, over 60 years old generation will share 30% of total. At he same time, the birthrate is declining.  We are facing the lack of labor forces. Particularly, it is critical to fill the gap of " blue collar " type of  business like on-site construction worker, town cleaner, care giver etc.

Fears of robots taking away jobs date back to at least the 1930s. But if you look at every major economic shift -- from the agricultural to the industrial age, the computer age, and the Internet -- more net jobs were created than lost. We expect the same dynamic to occur with AI and robotics.

Robots are making great progress and there will soon be a day when they will be able to help us with important tasks and task that we don’t want to do. Japan, for example, has an aging population that could benefit from robots that provide healthcare and personal assistance.

7. What can AI systems do now?

I agree the comments of Davood Shamsi, Researcher, AOL/Verizon.

Even today, we can automate many task using AI that wasn't possible before, for example, accurate voice recognition, and big data automation. BI is be one of the biggest benefactors of AI.   RPA and chat bot is becoming common as well.

8. When will AI systems become more intelligent than people?

I agree the comments of Davood Shamsi, Researcher, AOL/Verizon. Some AI systems are already more intelligent that people. Think of Chess, or game of Go. These are rule-based tasks. However, it is hard to imagine a machine can beat human in all the tasks anytime soon. Tech prediction has always been inaccurate, and rarely correct, so, I prefer not to predict. General Artificial Intelligence  (GAI) is still decades away.

9. What are some of the best takeaways that the attendees can have from your talk?

AI technology is becoming common.  AI engineers should focus on Ai enabler technologies. however most of us need to come up with " AI as a Service"

Ai is just a tool.  The most important thing is to think what the company's pain point is seriously.   Otherwise, AI, IoT or Robotics could not help to solve the problem at all.

10. What are the top 5 AI Use cases in enterprises?

  Image  recognition for the inspection

  Image recognition for retail businesss

  Sale / Marketing prediction

  Supply chain managemtt

  Autonomous mobility

11. Which company do you think is winning the global AI race?

Just one company is not winning the global AI race.  There are so many use cases now being developed. I believe different applications and use cases will produce different champions [for example, the best image recognition for retails or something.

12 Any closing remarks

I look forward to sharing  SoftBank's business driven AI use cases with audiences and meet AI experts at the conference.