The embarrassment of Japan's AI: ChatGPT can't tell the difference between its Prime Minister

Beijing, May 15 (Xinhua) Japan is more urgent than other countries to promote the use of artificial intelligence (AI) because of a labor shortage caused by a shrinking population. But it is a bit embarrassing that the most popular ChatGPT can't tell who the Japanese prime minister is.

Taro Kono, Japan's minister for digital transformation, who is in charge of promoting AI in the country, also supports Japan's increased use of AI to help overcome the challenge of labour shortages, but embarrassment occurs to him.

"I asked ChatGPT who Kono Taro was, and he gave the wrong answer," Kono Taro said in an interview on Monday. "so you need to be AI." He asked that his first name be written in the order of Japanese names, with his surname first.

ChatGPT mistook Kono for Fumio Kishida. When asked about the wrong answer given by ChatGPT, Kono said that ChatGPT regarded him as "Japanese Prime Minister". Japan's current prime minister, Fumio Kishida, has set up a group to study the economic potential and risks of AI and hopes to take the lead in regulating AI technology as president of the Group of Seven this year. Last month, G7 digital ministers agreed on an action plan to promote "trusted AI".

Taro Kono also defended ChatGPT. "compared with English, the data set of small languages is not large, so there may be biases." He said. Even if AI is at risk, Japan is willing to try the new technology. "Robots do not pose a threat to Japan's workforce because Japan's population is shrinking," Mr Kono said. "We are more eager to try new AI technology." He added that the government is discussing the creation of datasets with Microsoft and other technology providers.