January 19, 2024 Solicitation for Opinions on (Draft) AI Guidelines for business

Based on the “Tentative Summary of AI Issues” (prepared by the AI Strategy Council on May 2023), the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) and the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) have been studying the integration and updating of existing related guidelines (see note), and have now drafted the AI Guidelines for business. Accordingly, solicitation for opinions on this proposal will be open from Saturday, January 20, through Monday, February 19, 2024. (Note) The Draft AI R&D GUIDELINES for International Discussions (2017, MIC), AI Utilization Guidelines (2019, MIC), Governance Guidelines for Implementation of AI Principles Ver. 1.1 (2022, METI)

1. Overview

The “Tentative Summary of AI Issues” was compiled by the AI Strategy Council (chaired by MATSUO Yutaka, Professor, the Graduate School of Engineering, the University of Tokyo) on Friday, May 26, 2023. The paper indicated the need to consider necessary revisions to existing guidelines in light of the spread of generative AI. Therefore, MIC and METI have been working to integrate and update existing guidelines and to study a unified, easy-to-understand set of guidelines for a wide range of all AI business actors.
The two respective ministers organized the meetings of the Conference toward AI Network Society (Chaired by SUDO Osamu, Professor, the Faculty of International Information Studies, Chuo University) and the Study Group on AI Guidelines for Business (Chaired by WATANABE Toshiya, Professor, Future Vision Research Center, University of Tokyo). Based on the discussions at both meetings, MIC and METI have drafted the AI Guidelines for Business and are now soliciting opinions on the draft. Based on the discussions at both meetings, we are soliciting opinions on this draft.

2. Subject for soliciting opinions

Draft AI Guidelines for Business―Main Text (Attachment 1)
Draft AI Guidelines for Business―Appendix (Attachment 2)

3. Procedure of solicitation for opinions

See Attachment 3

4. Deadline for solicitation for opinions

No later than Monday, February 19, 2024 (Opinions sent by mail must arrive no later than the deadline).
Points to keep in mind
The contents of the submitted opinions, the names of the submitters (in the case of corporations, their names), and other information related to their attributes may be made public at a later date.
Please note that we will not be able to respond to individual opinions.

6. Future plans

Based on the results of the solicitation for opinions, Version 1.0 of the AI Guidelines for Business will be compiled.

7. How to obtain materials

The materials will be available for inspection and distribution at the contact point. They will also be posted in the Public Comment section of the e-Government (e-Gov) portal (https://www.e-gov.go.jp).

＊The published materials are in Japanese only.