Japan needs computing power surge to stay in AI race, says govt adviser

Hideki Murai, a ruling Liberal Democratic Party's (LDP) lawmaker and special adviser on artificial intelligence to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida attends an interview with Reuters in Tokyo, Japan, July 18, 2023. REUTERS/Tim Kelly

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan needs to rapidly expand computing power as it vies to become a global leader in artificial intelligence, said Hideki Murai, a special AI adviser to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

"The government's key priority is computing power. We feel a real sense of crisis about that," Murai, a ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker who heads the government's AI strategy team, told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday. "We want to create the foundations for an AI era," he added.