Electronics giant NEC says it is developing generative artificial intelligence in the Japanese language for use by businesses, amid the widespread use of ChatGPT.

NEC President and CEO Morita Takayuki said in an online interview with Japanese media that generative AI will affect broad areas of society, just like the Internet.

He said "We are now aiming for technology that can deal with issues related to false information and copyright infringement, and can also be used for both general-purpose and dedicated purposes. We hope to provide a service that Japanese speakers will find reliable."

Other Japanese companies have started similar projects.

Internet services company, Line, is working on a Large Language Model which is the technological basis for generative AI.

Major IT firm, CyberAgent, has also announced plans to develop generative AI designed for use in Japanese.