Draft of AI Act Goes to Diet

Shigeru Ishiba Cabinet made a decision on the draft of Japan’s first legislation for artificial intelligence (AI) and submitted it to the Diet for further discussion. While the draft vests the government a power for investigation on operations of AI, it meanwhile promotes development and use of AI for industrial profits. The Japanese government hopes to catch up with the development of AI regulation in the world. 

The government has been discussing the risk of AI, which may cause dissemination of fake information by generative AI. “While AI can contribute to the development of our country, various risks have been appearing,” says the interim reportof AI Strategy Council in Cabinet Office in February. Considering delay of technological development of AI in Japan, the government realized the necessity of promotion of AI in “an appropriate way.” It rather focuses on promotion rather than regulation.

 

The draft of AI Act stipulates the purpose of the law as comprehensive and deliberate promotion of measures for research and development of AI technology. Recognizing importance of AI technology in terms of security, the government is going to obtain capability of research and development and improve competitiveness of Japan in international community.

 

The draft of AI Act gives the government a power to investigate the developer of AI technology, in case AI violates rights or benefit of the people. It assumes the case in which AI is used for crimes or disturbs society by spreading false information with biased data.

The government will constantly watch the use of AI with interviewing AI developers or operators. It will be done for not only domestic companies but foreign corporations. The law will mandate any companies to cooperate with the governmental investigation. Although the law does not impose penalty on violations, it will publish the name of company in malicious case.

 

Based on the law, the government is going to formulate AI Basic Plan and establish AI Strategic Headquarters headed by the prime minister. The draft of the law will be discussed in both Houses of the Diet in current ordinary session.

 

Leading the discussion over controlling AI, the European Union legislated the AI Act in 2024, which became the first-ever comprehensive legal framework on AI. The act “sets out a clear set of risk-based rules for AI developers regarding specific uses of AI.” While Some non-European countries followed the move of EU, Trump administration of the United States turned down the regulatory measures of Biden administration and signed an executive order to remove barrier on AI innovation.

 

Japanese government always concerns about the position of Japanese economy in the world, including ranking of GDP. The biggest motivation for AI Act is taking advantage of AI to support further economic growth of Japan and not to be left behind the international movement for controlling AI technology. However, it does not seem to have determined whether it should promote or regulate this highly uncontrollable technology.

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