Japan’s Rakuten company is about to enter the world of AI. Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten has announced its plans to introduce its own proprietary artificial intelligence Large Language Model (LLM) within the next two months.
Objectives
Rakuten is a leading buisness giant. Rakuten runs a global business in e-commerce, fintech, advertising, mobile, content and entertainment with deep expertise in data science and engineering, machine learning, artificial intelligence, cloud, security, distribution systems and more.
Rakuten entered the field with the aim of walking shoulder to shoulder with the tech giants of other countries. While famous technogical company from the US and China, such as OpenAI, Amazon, Google, and Tencent, have successfully launched their LLM, Rakuten has stepped forward in the list of technologically advanced Japanese companies.
Promise of ‘Huge Profitable Growth’
During a recent discussion with CNBC on the subject, Rakuten CEO Hiroshi Mikitani talked about the company’s ongoing project to build a large language model (LLM).
“Branching out into AI technology holds the promise of huge profitable growth for Rakuten”, Mikitani said.
These are massive algorithms trained on massive data sets, following OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which are going to underpin artificial intelligence applications.
Mikitani emphasized that no one has a dataset like Rakuten. The company’s plan is to use AI models internally to improve operational efficiency and marketing by 20%.
Rakuten CEO wants to offer the model to third-party businesses like Amazon. It can provide a platform so that they can fully use it for their business.
Rakuten’s entry into the AI space comes as the European Union moves closer to regulating AI technology, showing the growing importance of AI on the global tech stage.
Can Rakuten make it’s slot in AI Ladder?
The company’s unique dataset from its various businesses can give it a competitive edge in this fast-growing field. Rakuten’s launch of LLM could also have a major impact on the global AI landscape. Competition in the LLM space is already fierce, and Rakuten’s entry will only intensify it.
Increased competition will likely lead to faster innovation and overall improved LLM technology. A Japan-based telecom company, NTT has announced that it will offer its proprietary LLM “tsuzumi” for businesses from March 2024, aimed at promoting operational efficiency and digital transformation (DX).
