OpenAI finally launched its Japanese office, appointed AWS Japan boss as its CEO

OpenAI welcomed Tadao Nagasaki as the President for its Japanese operation

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Key notes

  • OpenAI expands to Tokyo, Japan, its third international office after London and Dublin.
  • Tadao Nagasaki, formerly of AWS Japan, appointed president of the new branch.
  • OpenAI promises a custom GPT-4 model for Japanese, aiming for broader API release in the future.

After weeks of rumor, Microsoft-backed OpenAI has now launched yet another international office, now expanding in Tokyo, Japan. Bloomberg had first exclusively detailed the news in late March this year, and it’s OpenAI’s third overseas branch after London and Dublin.

In Monday’s announcement, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, says that it’s appointed Tadao Nagasaki to be the president of the new branch. Nagasaki worked at Amazon Web Service (AWS) Japan and had previously managed to welcome 2.26 trillion Japanese yen (approx. 14,6 trillion USD) investment into the country’s cloud infrastructure earlier this year.

The company also promises an optimized experience for local businesses and enterprises to try out a GPT-4 custom model specifically for the Japanese language. Hailed as a cost-effective and faster model, it can translate and summarize Japanese text.

“We plan to release the custom model more broadly in the API in the coming months,” says Altman.

Over the past year, the city has gradually provided ChatGPT access to almost all city employees, and 80% have reported increases in productivity,” the announcement further reads.

Just last week, Microsoft, OpenAI’s number-one financial backer, also opened its AI office in the UK and started hiring talents for the new seat. The new Microsoft AI Hub in London is expected to be a part of Microsoft’s new AI organization that was launched last month. 

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