Toru Nishikawa (right), co-founder and chief executive officer of Preferred Networks, and Daisuke Okanohara, co-founder and managing director, with a robotic arm of Fanuc Corp. At the headquarters of their company in Tokyo, Japan, March 16, 2018.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty images
Favorite networks are a little known name outside Japan, but the unicorn of artificial intelligence supported by Toyota has major projects to use in -depth learning to solve “real” problems – with the final goal of becoming a global.
“For 10 years, we have been working on the use of AI to solve real world problems,” Deputy Managing Director, Director General of Daisuke told Daisuke, Daisuke Okanohara, told CNBC “Manage Asia. “” The company has ventured into industries as varied as trucking, health care and robots.
Favorite networks have drawn the attention of big names such as the giant automobile Toyotawhich in 2017 invested 10.5 billion yen ($ 95.4 million) in the company in more than a 1 billion initial yen in 2015.
Favorite networks are one of the few unicorns in Japan. Although the Japanese startup ecosystem has increased, Japanese companies valued at more than a billion dollars represent only 0.5% of the world total, According to a working document from the International Monetary Fund Posted in December.
The deep learning startup is also in a Joint venture with the Mitsui & Co. In the field of autonomous driving. The two invested in a company, T2, in order to meet the challenges associated with the trucking industry, including “extremely long” work hours that extend overnight and a downward driver basin, said CEO Toru Nishikawa.
But competition in the automotive industry has also been a factor. Recognizing the current limits of the company, Okanohara added: “If we were to approach the problem of ordinary cars, it would be extremely difficult. There are many companies that work on autonomous driving, and it is a very competitive field.”
The AI ​​ambitions of favorite networks have since been far further. But compared to other AI solutions in the digital space, in which it is “relatively easy to obtain results with users”, the treatment of real world problems requires more time, said Okanohara.
When they were asked how long it took the company’s technologies to start earning money, Nishikawa said it could take up to five years in an area such as the discovery of AI materials.
“First of all, we start joint research with companies, then assess whether it can be marketed or not. Once we determine that it can be marketed, we work to create services and products that can be provided to customers,” he said, adding that “in total, this process takes about three to five years before marketing and practical launch.”
As for the latest AI developments, Okanohara said that the favorite networks had recognized that Deepseek “, very good technology” and “led to special attention” before being catapulted to glory, adding that “various players” will soon enter the flea industry.
The favorite networks hope to be among them. Grateful that Nvidia The AI ​​generating strategy has successfully successfully completed, but has a graphic processing unit design that is not yet “optimal”, Nishikawa has said that favorite networks are “creating more advanced processors” to obtain a competitive advantage.
Introduction plans
It remains to be seen if the company will be able to reach the extent of its ambitions. For the moment, he looks at foreign investors and receives “many requests for information in the areas of entertainment, semiconductors and computers”, according to Nishikawa, who noted that “there are limits to what we can do in Japan only, and the world market is much larger than the Japanese market”.
Obtaining a first public offer is one of the objectives of the company, he added. When asked a delay, Okanohara said: “I think the need for huge funds will be done when we introduce our material products, such as semiconductors, in the world. I therefore think we are aimed at making public at that time”, adding that it could take about three to five years.
