At the 4th Shinzo Abe Conference, Professor Yutaka Matsuo—renowned AI expert, Chairperson of the Japan Deep Learning Association, member of Japan’s AI Strategy Council, and External Board Director at SoftBank Group Corp.—delivered an insightful presentation on the role of advanced AI and robotics in enabling Government 24/7 systems.
He emphasized that despite the growing capabilities of AI, the internal workings of large-scale neural networks remain partially mysterious, but research is gradually revealing their structures and mechanisms.
Professor Matsuo then transitioned to robotics, sharing Japan’s progress in developing intelligent, responsive robots. By integrating LLMs, robots can now translate human instructions into smooth, actionable commands—demonstrated through robots that can perform household tasks like folding laundry and assembling boxes. He referenced pioneering work such as Pi Zero by Physicalai and recent breakthroughs by Google in robotic manipulation.
To support the development of robotic foundation models, Professor Matsuo introduced the newly launched IOA – AI Robot Association, which will lead Japan’s efforts to build an open, global platform for sharing robotic data and accelerating innovation. This initiative aims to power AI-enabled systems that support continuous, intelligent public services—key to realizing the vision of Government 24/7.
He concluded by underscoring the critical role of AI and robotics in addressing societal challenges such as labor shortages, and called for international collaboration to advance trustworthy, inclusive AI for governance and public good.