Two New Partnerships Between U.S. and Japanese Universities Will Focus on AI Research

  • By Kate Lucariello
  • 05/01/24

To coincide with the recent visit of Japanese Prime Minister Kishido Fumio to the United States, the Department of Commerce announced two new interdisciplinary, collaborative partnerships, focusing on AI research, between American and Japanese universities at a signing ceremony in Washington, D.C., on April 9, 2024.

The two partnerships are between the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle and the University of Tsukuba (UT) in Tsukuba, Japan; and between Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh and Keio University (Keio) in Tokyo, according to a release from the U.S. Embassy in Japan.

The effort is being funded by $110 million from private sector companies NVIDIA, Amazon, Arm and Softbank Group, Microsoft, and nine Japanese companies.
 
According to the embassy release, each partnership will be an interdisciplinary collaboration across departments, faculties, and students, but each will have a different focus in AI research, based on their location strengths. UW and UT will focus on workforce development. CMU and Keio will focus on multimodal and multilingual learning; embodied AI/AI for robots; autonomous AI symbiosis with humans; life sciences; and AI for scientific discovery.

The partnerships are the third of the Biden-Harris Administration's and Japan's May 2022 strategic university and corporate agreement initiatives to advance cooperation in science and technology and strengthen the two countries' alliance, the release noted. Japanese universities and corporations signed partnerships in quantum computing and semiconductor engineering at the G7 Leaders' Summit in Hiroshima.

"The United States is committed to working with our allies and partners to lead on the development of safe and responsible artificial intelligence and welcome opportunities for collaboration between our institutions in leading edge technology," said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. "Today's announcement will build on President Biden and Prime Minister Kishida's commitment to advance U.S. — Japan science and technology cooperation to develop a talented global workforce and strengthen economic security in both countries."

About the Author

Kate Lucariello is a former newspaper editor, EAST Lab high school teacher and college English teacher.

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