Rakuten, a prominent Japanese conglomerate with a diverse portfolio including fintech, e-commerce, and telecommunications, is set to enter the burgeoning field of artificial intelligence (AI). In a recent interview with CNBC, Rakuten’s CEO Hiroshi “Mickey” Mikitani unveiled plans to launch the company’s proprietary artificial intelligence language model (LLM). Leveraging a vast reservoir of unique data from its varied business sectors, Rakuten aims to train this model to enhance its internal operational efficiency and marketing strategies by 20%.
Mikitani revealed that Rakuten is developing a large language model (LLM), a type of extensive algorithm that relies on substantial data sets to power AI applications like OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Given Rakuten’s diverse business portfolio, which spans banking, e-commerce, and telecommunications, the company possesses a wealth of unique data suitable for training its LLM, Mikitani noted.
“Nobody has a dataset like we do,” he said.
This move positions Rakuten alongside other global tech giants that have developed similar technologies. Notably, U.S. companies like OpenAI, Amazon, and Google, as well as Chinese firms such as Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent, have already launched their own large language models. Despite a delayed start compared to these U.S. and Chinese counterparts, Japanese companies are rapidly advancing in the AI space. For instance, telecommunications group NTT has announced the availability of its proprietary LLM in March, and SoftBank’s telecommunications arm recently operationalized its generative AI computing platform.
Rakuten’s plan extends beyond internal applications, as the CEO expressed intentions to offer their AI model to third-party businesses, emulating the approach of Amazon and Microsoft.
“So we can easily teach them [businesses], package it and provide the platform for them to completely they can use it for their business,” said Mikitani.
While there’s no set timeline for the launch, a Rakuten spokesperson hinted at a potential announcement about the LLM in the coming months. The development of language models tailored to the Japanese language by Japanese firms like Rakuten could provide a competitive edge over international rivals, particularly in catering to the nuances of local language and cultural contexts.
Featured image: Hiroshi Mikitani. Credit: Bloomberg
