NEWS

2024/02/26

alt Conference 2024, “The Shock of ZERO – AI and Humans: Change or Slavery?” to feature Heizo Takenaka on stage!
Kentaro Inui, professor, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, Tohoku University; Takahiro Ikushima, Mathematical Science Advanced Technology Laboratory; and other distinguished guests to participate

alt Inc. (https://dev-corporate-web.poc-dev.com/en/), the Japan-based developer and distributor of Personal Artificial Intelligence (P.A.I.®️) and AI clone technology (head office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Kazutaka Yonekura) will hold its free alt Conference 2024 on Thursday, March 28, from 3:00 to 6:30 p.m. at Bellesalle Tokyo Nihonbashi. We’re pleased to announce that Heizo Takenaka, a leading economist in Japan and abroad; Kentaro Inui, professor at Tohoku University’s Graduate School of Information Science and Technology; and Takahiro Ikushima of Mathematical Science Advanced Technology Laboratory Co., Ltd. will be the conference’s guests of honor. (https://event.alt.ai/alt-conference2024)

The Shock of ZERO – AI and Humans : Change or Slavery?

This event, titled "The Shock of ZERO – AI and Humans: Change or Slavery?" will discuss what technology should be like and how the economy should evolve in the face of the reassessment of human value itself brought about by the rise of generative AI.

Heizo Takenaka, an economist active in Japan and abroad, will be a special guest speaker at the event. In addition, we will be joined by leading AI researchers and tech founders, including Professor Kentaro Inui of the Graduate School of Information Science and Technology at Tohoku University, one of the largest natural language processing laboratories in Japan. Also present will be Takahiro Ikushima of Mathematical Science Advanced Technology Laboratory Co., Ltd., to discuss the theme of this conference, Zero Impact—a world without the need for people—which is now beginning to be built. We’ll discuss what benefits this will bring to us and what the future of technology and the economy should look like. Additional guests will be announced soon, so please stay tuned.

At the opening of the conference, alt CEO Yonekura will present a demonstration titled “Zero Impact: a world without the need for people.” Following this, a variety of guest speakers will discuss topics such as GenAI to PAI, “Human capital management” judges with AI, the illness and cure of Japan’s DX, CloneM&A, next-generation sales models utilizing AI, and people quietly changing the world of AI. Together, these presentations will explore the topic of Zero Impact from a variety of perspectives.

The conference will offer alt's innovative approaches from a wide range of perspectives, not only to business owners, sales, consultants, and engineers but also to anyone interested in enhancing business competitiveness, discovering new business models, and responding to market needs.

Please join us as a party of this era for a day of exciting discussion on how humanity, Japan, the economy, and business will be transformed by the disruptive technology of generative AI. We recommend registering early as seats are limited.

【Overview of the alt Conference 2024】

Title：alt Conference 2024: The Shock of ZERO – AI and Humans: Change or Slavery?

Date：Thursday, March 28, 15:00-18:30

                Reception will be held after the closing session.

Venue：Bellesalle Tokyo Nihonbashi

           　   Tokyo Nihonbashi Tower B2, 2-7-1 Nihonbashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 103-6005

Access：Directly connected to Nihonbashi Station Exit B6 (Ginza, Tozai, & Asakusa Lines)

Admission：Free

To register, please visit https://event.alt.ai/alt-conference2024

Details on speakers, program, and more will be released as they become available.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at the contact information below.

【Guest Profile】

Heizo Takenaka, Professor Emeritus, Keio University

Mr. Takenaka was born in Wakayama Prefecture in 1951, holds a Ph.D. in economics and serves as professor emeritus at Keio University. After graduating from Hitotsubashi university with a bachelor's degree in economics, he joined the Japan Development Bank in 1973 and retired in 1981. In 2001, he was appointed minister of state for economic and fiscal policy in the Koizumi cabinet, and has since served as minister of state for financial affairs, minister of state for postal privatization, and minister of internal affairs and communications. In 2004, he was elected to the House of Councilors. He retired from politics in September 2006. Mr. Takenaka currently serves as research advisor to the Japan Center for Economic Research, chairman of the board of directors of Academy Hills, independent outside director of SBI Holdings, Inc. and director of the World Economic Forum (Davos Forum).

Kentaro Inui, Professor, Tohoku University, Graduate School of Information Science, Department of Systems and Information Science, Department of Intelligent Information Science, Department of Natural Language Processing

Mr. Inui is a visiting professor at Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI, UAE) and professor at Tohoku University’s Language AI Research Center, specializing in natural language processing. He earned his Ph.D. at Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1995, then served as an assistant at the same university, an associate professor at Kyushu Institute of Technology, and an associate professor at Nara Institute of Science and Technology before becoming a professor at Tohoku University in 2010. Since 2016, he has also led the natural language understanding team at the RIKEN (AIP) Center for Advanced Intelligence Projects. In 2023, he transferred his main affiliation to MBZUAI and has since been active in both Abu Dhabi, UAE and Sendai, Japan. Mr. Inui served as the editor-in-chief of the Journal of the Information Processing Society, chair of the Natural Language Processing Study Group of the same society, editor-in-chief of the Journal of Natural Language Processing, and general chair of the international conference EMNLP-2019. Since 2022, he has also been the president of the Association for Natural Language Processing. He has received various awards from international conferences and societies, including the DoCoMo Mobile Science Award, Google Focused Research Award, and the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s Award in Science and Technology.

Takahiro Ikushima, Mathematical Science Advanced Technology Laboratory Co., Ltd.

Since its establishment in 2007, Mr. Ikushima’s company has been engaged in research and development in the areas of numerical computation, formula processing, control systems, machine learning, HPC, knowledge systems, and AI. It aims to provide solutions to cutting-edge issues in fields including nuclear fusion, space, material structure, biotechnology, medicine, and finance. Recently, Mr. Ikushima has been analyzing trends in AI broadly related to philosophy, ethics, sociology, political science, and economics, while conducting projects on creativity. He defines ‘singularity’ as the day AI wins the Fields Prize in theoretical physics and mathematics.

These days, LLMs are becoming increasingly popular, opening up a wide range of new business models. Looking ahead, Mr. Ikushima plans to focus on the development of AGI, AI with ego and strong AI—where we consider collaboration with specialized AI and general-purpose weak AI. In addition, from the theme of Zero Impact—a world without the need for people—we must now design how AI will spread economically and how weak AI and robots will coexist with us and with strong AI. The Public Money Forum, of which Mr. Ikushima is a member, is also examining this change from the perspective of near-future economics.

【alt conference 2024 Program Outline】

Kazutaka Yonekura, CEO, alt Inc. x Special Guest

Zero Impact: A world without the need for people

We will introduce our company and the theme of this conference, and you will be able to see a demo.

Yoshikazu Nishimura, CTO, alt Inc.

GenAI to PAI

What comes next after GenAI: I will discuss alt's vision of the future from a technological perspective. I’ll also talk about the future horizon of GenAI, from responsive to autonomous and from general to personalized.

Yusuke Hioki, Director and CFO, alt Inc.

“Human capital management” judges with AI

Examining human resources displaced by AI vs. human resources that continue to create value.

Imagining the world 30 or 100 years from now, what does essential "human capital management" (maximizing the value of human resources) mean? I will explore the optimal direction that society, companies, and individuals should aim for by judging some prevalent misconceptions with the help of AI.

Takahiro Ikushima x Kentaro Inui x Yoshikazu Nishimura

Special conversation (panel discussion)

Junki Komura, AI/DX Consultant Principal and Business Development Manager, alt Inc.

The illness and cure of Japan’s DX

Digital clones create labor production and accompany and support people. People add unique value.

alt can provide AI/DX solutions that are not traditional coping strategies, but cause-oriented. This program will include the results of alt's own research and will include a demonstration of one of our solutions.

Katsuya Asai, General Manager, AI Solutions Division, alt Inc.

The beginning of the clone business

Strategic implementation of AI brings significant added value to companies. An optimal AI strategy comes with benefits in many aspects, such as increased efficiency, faster decision-making, and improved customer experience, and is a key component to overall organizational growth and competitiveness. At alt, we create innovative initiatives to enhance the competitiveness of client businesses, discover new business models, and provide products and services that meet the needs of the market. We will introduce you to our clients with examples of actual initiatives.

Heizo Takenaka x Special Guest x Yusuke Hioki

Special conversation (panel discussion)

Masataka Inoue, AI M&A Managing Director, alt Inc.

–CloneM&A– Ending the M&A market pain

The M&A intermediary industry is booming at a time when the lack of successors for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and their closure from profitability have been defined as pressing national issues.

Although it attracts attention from the stock market as a 20 trillion yen industry, it is in fact extremely labor intensive and does not reach the many SMEs that need M&A services.

The CloneM&A developed by alt will lead to a fundamental solution to this social problem. I will introduce alt's cutting-edge technology that will light up the future of SMEs with a demonstration.

Fumiya Hosaka, AE Manager, AI SaaS Division, alt Inc.

Next-generation sales models using AI: the end of the sales force–like SaaS business

This presentation will introduce the de facto standard for next-generation sales models utilizing AI.

In Japan, where the working population is expected to decline in the future, how do we reduce the workforce and secure the sales force that will be the starting point of management and planning by working together with AI? And how do we horizontally deploy the know-how of top salespeople? Here are some answers from alt.

Special Guest x Special Guest x Yoshikazu Nishimura

Special conversation (panel discussion)

Yuta Hitomi, AI lead engineer, R&D Division, alt Inc.

People quietly changing the world of AI

In this session, I will introduce companies that are finding ways to get along well with foundational models in an environment of LLM model development dominated by big tech, and are seeking to apply foundational models and develop peripheral technologies. Through their strategic initiatives and technological approaches, we will explore new developments in the field of AI.

■About alt Inc.

Established in November 2014, alt Inc. is a venture firm with the mission of freeing humankind from non-creative/unproductive labor through the creation of P.A.I.®️ (Personal Artificial Intelligence) and AI clones. We also develop and provide SaaS products such as AI GIJIROKU, which utilizes speech recognition technology born from the development of AI dialogue engines. As of September 2023, our cumulative funding has reached over 8 billion yen.

https://dev-corporate-web.poc-dev.com/en/

<Media Inquiries to:>

Misako Nishizawa (Media Relations)

e-mail: press@alt.ai

<For inquiries about the event>
alt Conference 2024 Secretariat
e-mail: alt-conference@alt.ai