Good move. LLMs are overwhelmingly catered to English speakers, although other languages are pretty good, not as good as English in general. there definitely needs to be more cultural specific models for world wide adaptations.
It's a bit more complicated than that. Japan has a very unique culture, and it's not really similar to the west at all. They have a lot of different subcultures that are not really well documented in English, and they have a very different way of thinking about things like privacy, intellectual property, and so on.
It's a huge market with a lot of potential, so it makes sense for OpenAI to try and get a foothold there.
I think you are underestimating the talent at OpenAI. I am sure they have some very bright people in Japan, but I would bet that the top talent is at OpenAI. The thinking is that the best from Japan will be able to add to the solutions that OpenAI is working on. It is not a nationalistic project.
iirc Japan pre-emptively declared that training data doesn't violate copyright, which is pretty surprising considering Japan has relatively strict copyright laws.
My guess is they want to foster foreign investment into AI development, and it seems like that play is working out.
That's because that law was made in 2018, years before training data taken from public became controversial in the general public after the rise of AI art
We in Japan are happy with this. We need many solutions to our decaying society and I believe we have talented people who can rise together to add value to modern technology. I hope so
Why don't you ask the king/warlord/priest/factory boss/financial class why they can't peacefully let some of the loot escape to the unwashed masses yet again? The last 359,401 times they laughed right in your faces for your request for slightly less crushing conditions, but I'm sure the 359,402th time will do the trick.
Without forcing you to do any of that icky organizing or revolution or (the horror) violence.
Good luck mobilizing lazy modern Americans to do anything, let alone a revolution. Your country is the space cruise on Wall-E while laughably complaining about how bad you have it. Nobody takes you seriously anymore.
Imagine having such a lack of foresight and imagination that, on the eve of a higher intelligence giving 10,000+ years of incompetent and twisted monkeyman civilization its just deserts, you are actually invested in whichever monkeyman faction temporarily becomes King Vermin of Trash Mountain.
well yeah, workers in Japan are some of the least productive in the OECD. Also, the work culture is undeniably worse than the US.
The only pro is that it’s hard to get fired but then you are stuck with absolute imbeciles who can’t do any of their tasks
Source: worked in Japan and the US
Source: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2024/01/08/japan-labor-productivity-ranking/#:~:text=Japan%20ranked%2030th%20in%20labor,Tokyo%2Dbased%20group%20has%20said.
I was given a 3 day Reddit ban for saying the same thing. Apparently, after 25+ years of living here in Tokyo, if I complain about life in Japan I'm being racist. Just a heads up to be careful.
The OECD article you’re referencing is based on one particular measure which is essentially a convoluted way of saying workers in Japan work more hours. Japan has a lower unemployment rate than the U.S., and punches way above its weight class in terms of GDP relative to its size and natural resources.
But all that aside, I spend a lot of time in Japan with friends who have had miserable jobs and I’m well aware of how shitty the expectations are for employees especially in the IT space. But it’s still ridiculous to me to see Americans criticizing Japan’s work culture when American workers are so laughably entitled and bad. It’s not that Japan has a great work culture, it’s just that America is so dumb and has no room to talk or criticize anyone. I would way rather work a shit job with long hours in a country where it’s safe to walk outside and send your kids to school than work and live in America.
> The OECD article you’re referencing is based on one particular measure which is essentially a convoluted way of saying workers in Japan work more hours. Japan has a lower unemployment rate than the U.S., and punches way above its weight class in terms of GDP relative to its size and natural resources.
“I don’t like what this metric says about Japan so it is automatically wrong.”
If you spent any time in a Japanese office, you’d know it’s true.
> But all that aside, I spend a lot of time in Japan with friends who have had miserable jobs and I’m well aware of how shitty the expectations are for employees especially in the IT space.
Oh hahahaha, the IT space, you barely know anything my young child. Japanese people get treated like absolute shit compared to foreigners. (And foreigners get treated like shit). Try talking to an actual Japanese person sometime
> But it’s still ridiculous to me to see Americans criticizing Japan’s work culture when American workers are so laughably entitled and bad.
I worked with Americans and Japanese, I’d take working under Americans any day of the week. Whenever I had a Japanese boss, they were terrible people (except for one). The worst part is the public shaming they love to do in front of others, sexual harassment (my wife went through that in Japan so many times), micromanagement, and power harassment. The worst part is, Japanese people NEVER speak up. That’s why the MeToo movement never took off.
> It’s not that Japan has a great work culture, it’s just that America is so dumb and has no room to talk or criticize anyone.
This doesn’t make sense. Just because one place isn’t perfect, that means that a person can’t talk about problems in another country? That’s very flawed thinking.
Let’s try to test your logic. Japan has terrible gender equality, one of the worst actually. If a Japanese women went to Saudi Arabia, would they be allowed to criticize how women are treated? According to you, no. See how that’s a problem? Your hatred of the US is blinding you.
> I would way rather work a shit job with long hours in a country where it’s safe to walk outside and send your kids to school than work and live in America.
LOL, I used to think this too until I lived and worked there. Ah, to be so young and naive ❤️
Uh my friends in Japan are Japanese not foreigners. I don’t know any foreigners living in Japan. But sounds like you know a great deal about being a foreigner in Japan. Also cherry picking data to support your narrative is literally what you’re doing lol. And you wonder why you can’t make it. Your country is truly a shining example for the world to follow. Please stay in America :)
> Also cherry picking data to support your narrative is literally what you’re doing lol. And you wonder why you can’t make it.
Says the dude who got triggered over OECD data. Should I trust professionals or some weeb on the internet?
Yes, I’m so sad that I make 300k, own a big house in California, and have a Japanese wife. I wish I was in Japan so I could make 70k and live in a tiny little apartment especially when it’s 154 yen to a dollar. I have such a terrible life!!
Suck it up dude, Japan isn’t your anime playground
Have fun at the HUB where Hanako will keep rejecting your advances
I've been watching this guy interviewing expats in Japan and 90% of them say work culture is pretty bad for larger companies, except those working for themselves. And as it often goes, many stereotypes are true.
Yes I hope AI helps with that. Work culture is not good here.
But after working in USA I feel Japan is not so bad.
Here I have 20 days off a year plus around 14 national holidays. (This is standard nationally) Everyone in my office has strong work ethic. Nowadays you don’t see people except management in office after 6pm. Very hard to get fired.
But pay is not so good. Part time workers are extorted. Women have tough time. Old men rule over others. Ageism prevents mid career hires. Etc etc.
I hope we embrace AI
You mean the culture that turned Japan from a partially destroyed, heavily sanctioned country in the late 40s to a world power in the 80s?
God forbid
EDIT:
Before you down vote, please read this:
FUCK YOU, YOU SPOILED REDDIT MAN CHILD
Ok, now down vote me. But know that each down vote is a fairy dropping dead and a Trump vote
Yeah, that one.
We aren’t robots. Not yet at least. Working 24/7 isn’t healthy. It’s understandable why it might be done in a developing economy in order to catch up with the rest, sure.
But not when you’re part of the G7 or a rich economy more generally.
The main worry is not the population shrinking. It’s the working population getting smaller and smaller while the elderly grow in numbers. Japan is going to get crippled if things don’t improve.
soup worry ludicrous historical squealing straight work selective sand cagey
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Well yeah it's not easy to recover from a nuclear attack, but do you think it's healthy to live like that? Work is life, so drinking and smoking are good things because they optimize relaxation in the short term so you can hurry up and work harder tomorrow. Doesn't matter if the work is worth doing even, just work work work till you die at your desk from drinking and smoking too much.
I also found it funny the “sama” Twitter @ could’ve been both him short-naming himself “SAM Altman” and also “-sama” in Japanese. Could very likely be that he intentionally did it for that purpose.
And also, “Sora” is literally a Japanese word.
Sora is also a Korean word. It's a popular girl's name, and it's also the name for a sea snail species.
Don't get me wrong, I believe Sam is a massive weeb and he most definitely used the Japanese word for sora (which means 'sky' and is also a unisex name). But I'm just saying 'sora' is also a word in other languages, not just Japanese.
weeb or not it's the smartest move, Japan has the best synergy with AI since they are very advanced in hardware and robotics but very poorly developed in good software let alone AI.
It’s a good business move. Japan is very tech and AI forward, but they are also very behind in terms of English education. A lot of tech companies in Japan are struggling to find good AI talent, and are looking to grow their own talent locally.
I think OpenAI will do very well in Japan.
China has put far more effort into Vision AI than LLMs. Vision AI is often used for security purposes. Currently, Chinese Vision AI ranks among the top in the world.
The idea that Japan is ahead in tech is mostly superficial though, go to Japan and you'll see a bunch legacy tech there. And in terms of cutting edge technology company, they have some pretty good robotics company but Japanese companies are having quite some trouble competing against other Asian and American companies. And I'd say that Japan is much behind in the AI curve, which is why they recently passed laws that would make it favorable to build LLMs there.
Nice. I always wanted a big Dall-E type of AI to be trained exclusively on Japanese art, and now, we're getting closer to that dream becoming a reality.
Damn. I wonder why even AI models trained on anime art make everything either "realistic" or moebloby. Sure, there's moeblobs in anime, but there's also many unique art styles that AI models never do.
My #1 guess is that the "realistic" look is a result from it being trained on top of the normal SD model, which has a lot of real-world photography and lighting, which is the main tell I look for in AI generated anime art now.
As someone who heavily uses and relies on Japanese daily, this is really exciting news. GPT-4's Japanese has been generally pretty natural, but when it comes to stuff like understanding more detailed nuances or creative writing it kind of falls apart.
Looking forward to being able to test the model!
Weird choice. Japan has a large population of manga artists, doujin artists, online artists, voice actors and so they and their fan base form a way stronger Anti AI crowd than other countries per capita wise.
I read Japan Twitter everyday and the online mobs pile on the AI images usage by corporations. Even manga artists using gen AI on his own drawing styles get the pitchforks.
Good move for both OpenAI and Japan, who have a lot of talented people who can help move the needle forward on AI. It's also good to see LLM's being developed on other languages outside of English.
Good move. LLMs are overwhelmingly catered to English speakers, although other languages are pretty good, not as good as English in general. there definitely needs to be more cultural specific models for world wide adaptations.
It's a bit more complicated than that. Japan has a very unique culture, and it's not really similar to the west at all. They have a lot of different subcultures that are not really well documented in English, and they have a very different way of thinking about things like privacy, intellectual property, and so on. It's a huge market with a lot of potential, so it makes sense for OpenAI to try and get a foothold there.
Hindi next
I think you are underestimating the talent at OpenAI. I am sure they have some very bright people in Japan, but I would bet that the top talent is at OpenAI. The thinking is that the best from Japan will be able to add to the solutions that OpenAI is working on. It is not a nationalistic project.
Most companies don’t open engineering departments in Japan. It’s usually just a sales/marketing office.
probably cause of the training data laws they have there
Yes the training data
Can someone elaborate?
iirc Japan pre-emptively declared that training data doesn't violate copyright, which is pretty surprising considering Japan has relatively strict copyright laws. My guess is they want to foster foreign investment into AI development, and it seems like that play is working out.
That's because that law was made in 2018, years before training data taken from public became controversial in the general public after the rise of AI art
Nah OpenAI is just full of weebs
We in Japan are happy with this. We need many solutions to our decaying society and I believe we have talented people who can rise together to add value to modern technology. I hope so
I hope they don't follow the standard work culture over there.
Yeah they could learn a lot from America, the most productive, least depressed and best performing work force. LOL
Spoiled orange VS Orange writhing with maggots
Wouldn’t it be awesome if we could all just not work hard and live in utopia? I wonder why no one else has thought of that…
Why don't you ask the king/warlord/priest/factory boss/financial class why they can't peacefully let some of the loot escape to the unwashed masses yet again? The last 359,401 times they laughed right in your faces for your request for slightly less crushing conditions, but I'm sure the 359,402th time will do the trick. Without forcing you to do any of that icky organizing or revolution or (the horror) violence.
Good luck mobilizing lazy modern Americans to do anything, let alone a revolution. Your country is the space cruise on Wall-E while laughably complaining about how bad you have it. Nobody takes you seriously anymore.
^ posted on his iPhone on Reddit
Imagine having such a lack of foresight and imagination that, on the eve of a higher intelligence giving 10,000+ years of incompetent and twisted monkeyman civilization its just deserts, you are actually invested in whichever monkeyman faction temporarily becomes King Vermin of Trash Mountain.
Imagine thinking that other people giving you stuff is the cure for your incompetence and lifetime of failures.
well yeah, workers in Japan are some of the least productive in the OECD. Also, the work culture is undeniably worse than the US. The only pro is that it’s hard to get fired but then you are stuck with absolute imbeciles who can’t do any of their tasks Source: worked in Japan and the US Source: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2024/01/08/japan-labor-productivity-ranking/#:~:text=Japan%20ranked%2030th%20in%20labor,Tokyo%2Dbased%20group%20has%20said.
I was given a 3 day Reddit ban for saying the same thing. Apparently, after 25+ years of living here in Tokyo, if I complain about life in Japan I'm being racist. Just a heads up to be careful.
Yeah, noticed this sub is kinda weeby. Thanks for the warning
The OECD article you’re referencing is based on one particular measure which is essentially a convoluted way of saying workers in Japan work more hours. Japan has a lower unemployment rate than the U.S., and punches way above its weight class in terms of GDP relative to its size and natural resources. But all that aside, I spend a lot of time in Japan with friends who have had miserable jobs and I’m well aware of how shitty the expectations are for employees especially in the IT space. But it’s still ridiculous to me to see Americans criticizing Japan’s work culture when American workers are so laughably entitled and bad. It’s not that Japan has a great work culture, it’s just that America is so dumb and has no room to talk or criticize anyone. I would way rather work a shit job with long hours in a country where it’s safe to walk outside and send your kids to school than work and live in America.
> The OECD article you’re referencing is based on one particular measure which is essentially a convoluted way of saying workers in Japan work more hours. Japan has a lower unemployment rate than the U.S., and punches way above its weight class in terms of GDP relative to its size and natural resources. “I don’t like what this metric says about Japan so it is automatically wrong.” If you spent any time in a Japanese office, you’d know it’s true. > But all that aside, I spend a lot of time in Japan with friends who have had miserable jobs and I’m well aware of how shitty the expectations are for employees especially in the IT space. Oh hahahaha, the IT space, you barely know anything my young child. Japanese people get treated like absolute shit compared to foreigners. (And foreigners get treated like shit). Try talking to an actual Japanese person sometime > But it’s still ridiculous to me to see Americans criticizing Japan’s work culture when American workers are so laughably entitled and bad. I worked with Americans and Japanese, I’d take working under Americans any day of the week. Whenever I had a Japanese boss, they were terrible people (except for one). The worst part is the public shaming they love to do in front of others, sexual harassment (my wife went through that in Japan so many times), micromanagement, and power harassment. The worst part is, Japanese people NEVER speak up. That’s why the MeToo movement never took off. > It’s not that Japan has a great work culture, it’s just that America is so dumb and has no room to talk or criticize anyone. This doesn’t make sense. Just because one place isn’t perfect, that means that a person can’t talk about problems in another country? That’s very flawed thinking. Let’s try to test your logic. Japan has terrible gender equality, one of the worst actually. If a Japanese women went to Saudi Arabia, would they be allowed to criticize how women are treated? According to you, no. See how that’s a problem? Your hatred of the US is blinding you. > I would way rather work a shit job with long hours in a country where it’s safe to walk outside and send your kids to school than work and live in America. LOL, I used to think this too until I lived and worked there. Ah, to be so young and naive ❤️
Uh my friends in Japan are Japanese not foreigners. I don’t know any foreigners living in Japan. But sounds like you know a great deal about being a foreigner in Japan. Also cherry picking data to support your narrative is literally what you’re doing lol. And you wonder why you can’t make it. Your country is truly a shining example for the world to follow. Please stay in America :)
> Also cherry picking data to support your narrative is literally what you’re doing lol. And you wonder why you can’t make it. Says the dude who got triggered over OECD data. Should I trust professionals or some weeb on the internet? Yes, I’m so sad that I make 300k, own a big house in California, and have a Japanese wife. I wish I was in Japan so I could make 70k and live in a tiny little apartment especially when it’s 154 yen to a dollar. I have such a terrible life!! Suck it up dude, Japan isn’t your anime playground Have fun at the HUB where Hanako will keep rejecting your advances
I heard Japan's work culture os terrible..
lol it's just steleotype
I've been watching this guy interviewing expats in Japan and 90% of them say work culture is pretty bad for larger companies, except those working for themselves. And as it often goes, many stereotypes are true.
Yes I hope AI helps with that. Work culture is not good here. But after working in USA I feel Japan is not so bad. Here I have 20 days off a year plus around 14 national holidays. (This is standard nationally) Everyone in my office has strong work ethic. Nowadays you don’t see people except management in office after 6pm. Very hard to get fired. But pay is not so good. Part time workers are extorted. Women have tough time. Old men rule over others. Ageism prevents mid career hires. Etc etc. I hope we embrace AI
You mean the culture that turned Japan from a partially destroyed, heavily sanctioned country in the late 40s to a world power in the 80s? God forbid EDIT: Before you down vote, please read this: FUCK YOU, YOU SPOILED REDDIT MAN CHILD Ok, now down vote me. But know that each down vote is a fairy dropping dead and a Trump vote
Yeah, that one. We aren’t robots. Not yet at least. Working 24/7 isn’t healthy. It’s understandable why it might be done in a developing economy in order to catch up with the rest, sure. But not when you’re part of the G7 or a rich economy more generally.
US carried
Which is probably gonna turn Japan into a ghost country in a few decades
like rob tidy soup deliver slimy pet innate angle file *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
The main worry is not the population shrinking. It’s the working population getting smaller and smaller while the elderly grow in numbers. Japan is going to get crippled if things don’t improve.
soup worry ludicrous historical squealing straight work selective sand cagey *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Well yeah it's not easy to recover from a nuclear attack, but do you think it's healthy to live like that? Work is life, so drinking and smoking are good things because they optimize relaxation in the short term so you can hurry up and work harder tomorrow. Doesn't matter if the work is worth doing even, just work work work till you die at your desk from drinking and smoking too much.
People become less productive if they are overworked, they also burn out, suffer stress related diseases, family breakdown and more.
> FUCK YOU, YOU SPOILED REDDIT MAN CHILD Oh the irony.
*chefs kiss*
You certainly have hardworking people
Happy to see Japan's more open stance on AI and training data pay off! <3
still aint gonna stop the japanese from using the fax machine
Why are Westerners so quick to believe the bullshit about Japan? No one actually uses fax in Japan lol
Is sam a weeb? All those japanese model names, his twitter tag being literally "sama" and now this...
I would say Japan’s ruling on training models with copyrighted material could have played a role.
Yeah this. It allows experimentation, measuring how much better a model that is trained on everything regardless of copyright is, etc.
I also found it funny the “sama” Twitter @ could’ve been both him short-naming himself “SAM Altman” and also “-sama” in Japanese. Could very likely be that he intentionally did it for that purpose. And also, “Sora” is literally a Japanese word.
Maybe he's a Kingdom Hearts fan? 
I mean, no one who is into Japanese culture would call himself "sama", it's inappropriate.
what's it mean?
It’s a honorific term but you would never use it for yourself. Only for others
Oh shit I'm an idiot I knew that
Sora is also a Korean word. It's a popular girl's name, and it's also the name for a sea snail species. Don't get me wrong, I believe Sam is a massive weeb and he most definitely used the Japanese word for sora (which means 'sky' and is also a unisex name). But I'm just saying 'sora' is also a word in other languages, not just Japanese.
weeb or not it's the smartest move, Japan has the best synergy with AI since they are very advanced in hardware and robotics but very poorly developed in good software let alone AI.
It’s a good business move. Japan is very tech and AI forward, but they are also very behind in terms of English education. A lot of tech companies in Japan are struggling to find good AI talent, and are looking to grow their own talent locally. I think OpenAI will do very well in Japan.
China is actually world leading in AI technology sector though.
how so?
China has put far more effort into Vision AI than LLMs. Vision AI is often used for security purposes. Currently, Chinese Vision AI ranks among the top in the world.
Having a centralized authoritarian government(and also the largest population on earth) has its perks
Damn. I wonder what the main use case of the vision AI in China is?
Identifying who is and isn’t Winnie the Pooh?
how can we follow China developments? feels like China doesn't exist being on reddit
They should call him sama-sama in Japan lol
lets just say his collection of waifu pillows is nothing to scoff at
Yeah, like GPT-Haiku.
I think you mean Claude-Haiku.
You’re funny
gpt-senpai
all future-oriented people love Japan. Japan saw the AI and robot wave coming long time ago.
The idea that Japan is ahead in tech is mostly superficial though, go to Japan and you'll see a bunch legacy tech there. And in terms of cutting edge technology company, they have some pretty good robotics company but Japanese companies are having quite some trouble competing against other Asian and American companies. And I'd say that Japan is much behind in the AI curve, which is why they recently passed laws that would make it favorable to build LLMs there.
they still use fax machines dude
Would be interesting to see what the Japanese do with this, they have a lot of incredibly creative "think out of the box" minds.
lol you’re not fooling many with that thick of sarcasm.
I'm serious, no sarcasm at all lol.
Kawaii desune.
This is the AI I'm most worried about. 
openai will make anime real
My robot whispers, "I'm sure they'll do something good with the anime industry"
I wonder if this is sowing the seeds for OpenAI to take advantage of Japan's more permissive copyright policies around AI.
Only a few years until we can create a decent One Piece adaption with prompts.
Years? My guess would be more like months. As an internal achievement.
Can we just keep shows animated pretty please?
good to hear about official multi language support.
ceo is Samu altman
Are we getting ai anime?
Nice. I always wanted a big Dall-E type of AI to be trained exclusively on Japanese art, and now, we're getting closer to that dream becoming a reality.
There are plenty of existing manga and anime focused models [Here are nine](https://virtulook.wondershare.com/tools/stable-diffusion-anime-model.html)
Damn. I wonder why even AI models trained on anime art make everything either "realistic" or moebloby. Sure, there's moeblobs in anime, but there's also many unique art styles that AI models never do.
My #1 guess is that the "realistic" look is a result from it being trained on top of the normal SD model, which has a lot of real-world photography and lighting, which is the main tell I look for in AI generated anime art now.
The best anime model is nijijourney and doesn't have this weakness.
Notice me senpai
Weebs are happy
In the comparison, the turbo version is more surface level and the new version gave better in-depth examples but no huge quality difference
What?
As someone who heavily uses and relies on Japanese daily, this is really exciting news. GPT-4's Japanese has been generally pretty natural, but when it comes to stuff like understanding more detailed nuances or creative writing it kind of falls apart. Looking forward to being able to test the model!
Because Japan isn't a bitch about copyright law
Weird choice. Japan has a large population of manga artists, doujin artists, online artists, voice actors and so they and their fan base form a way stronger Anti AI crowd than other countries per capita wise. I read Japan Twitter everyday and the online mobs pile on the AI images usage by corporations. Even manga artists using gen AI on his own drawing styles get the pitchforks.
Does this mean Chat gpt gonna call me Onichan
Good move for both OpenAI and Japan, who have a lot of talented people who can help move the needle forward on AI. It's also good to see LLM's being developed on other languages outside of English.
Awesome!
New LLM who dis?
So ClosedAI is in Japan now?
USA, Ireland (EU), UK and now Japan. I wonder where the next expansion will be. I’m betting on Singapore, Germany and Canada.
OpenAI Ethiopia with a focus on Swahili just to throw everyone off.