Co-hosted by China International Publishing Group (CIPG) and Japanese non-profit think tank the Genron NPO, participants from both countries shared ideas and held in-depth dialogues on digital economy, artificial intelligence(AI), economic and trade cooperation, and cultural exchanges during the two-day forum.

At the sub-forum of the 17th Beijing-Tokyo Forum on October 26, both Chinese and Japanese experts held candid and in-depth discussions on the prospects of bilateral cooperation in digital society and AI, and reached consensus on relevant issues.

Sino-Japanese digital cooperation boasts great prospects

Xu Zhilong, editor-in-chief of the Science and Technology Daily said at the forum, “The development of digital economy is not merely the development of digital technologies or products, but to build an ecological system of digital economy.”

Tatsuo Yamasaki, distinguished professor of the International University of Health and Welfare expressed his hope that this platform could explore solutions to the issues concerned the community with a shared future for mankind, such as the care of the elderly in an aging society, AI enabling climate change monitoring, tracking carbon footprint through AI technology, reducing energy consumption, and integrating traditional energy with new technologies.

Pang Dazhi, vice president of NetEase believes that the young generation in China and Japan gets to know each other’s culture through digital products, such as animation, games, music and movies. “In fact, based on the same cultural heritage and highly complementary technology on game development, the two countries have broad space for cooperation in the field of digital culture and digital economy.”

Novel trends and scenarios of digital economy

Duan Dawei, Senior vice president at iFLYTEK Co.Ltd. said, there is great room for cooperation between China and Japan in the field of AI. “China and Japan face common challenges in education, medical care, care for elderly people and other areas. Thus, we can discuss how to offer better service to the public through AI technology.”

Taro Shimada, Senior VP of Toshiba corporation, said that the use of logistics data is vulnerable to natural disasters. “Both China and Japan are committed to improving the toughness of supply chain through sci-tech. Facing the shock of COVID-19, logistics data presents both opportunities and challenges. Common sense has been reached on the sharing of logistics data, promoting the use of logistics data to a new level.”

Jeff Shi, vice president of SenseTime, said AI can help solve the aging problem faced by both China and Japan, dealing with the practical challenge of productivity shortage. “AI can help solve the productivity shortfall. Meanwhile, AI itself is trying to improve productivity by reducing its reliance on data and humans.”

“Zero carbonisation” gains momentum through digital economy

AI helps develop new materials such as new catalysts, said Junichi Hasegawa, COO of Preferred Networks. “Photovoltaic, hydraulic and hydrogen energy are all commonly discussed energy sources, whereas they all belong to secondary energy sources. Therefore, carbon emissions are unavoidable in the production of these new energies and how to reduce carbon emissions in producing these energy is an important issue.”

In addition, human society is inseparable from computers. How to reduce the power consumption of its data centers and develop new computers with higher efficiency and less emissions is also worth thinking about.

“Total global carbon emissions fell by a record 7 percent in 2020 from the previous year due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Liu Song, vice president of Pingkai Xingchen (Beijing) Technology Co.Ltd., “However, economic activities did not suspend, the reason is the vigorous development of Internet economy.”

Liu said that online activities can significantly reduce carbon emissions while ensuring normal economic development. We may seek new path on energy conservation and emission reduction through the use, transmission and storage of data in the future.

Data protection and security are focused

Hiromi Yamaoka, board member of Future corporation, said that developing AI needs to address concerns on privacy collection. “The application of AI requires the collection of high-quality data, which involves the aspects of data governance, privacy protection and other issues. In the process of developing AI, the concerns should be tackled. In addition, when it comes to cross-border data flows, countries around the world should reach a consensus to ensure the security of data flow,”said he.

Liu also shared idea on this topic, saying that the boundaries of national security and personal privacy need to be clearly defined. China has paid attention to the dialectical relationship between development and security of data flow.