On Jan. 20, Chinese artificial intelligence company DeepSeek released a low-cost AI model, DeepSeek-R1, and created quite a buzz. When the stock market saw major losses among American tech companies as a result, Japanese media referred to the episode as the「DeepSeek ショック」(Dīpushīku shokku, DeepSeek shock).
While some countries quickly banned the use of DeepSeek on 安全保障上の理由 (anzen hoshōjō no riyū, security grounds), Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba commented,「安全保障の重要な分野において、わが国として信頼できるAIを開発、利用する必要がある」 (Anzen hoshō no jūyōna bunya ni oite, wagakuni toshite shinrai dekiru ēai o kaihatsu, riyō suru hitsuyō ga aru, In important areas of national security, it is essential our country develop and use trustworthy AI).
The controversies surrounding AI aren’t limited to the arrival of DeepSeek. As 人工知能 (jinkō chinō, artificial intelligence) plays a bigger part in our daily lives, discussions on 情報リテラシー (jōhō riterashī, information literacy) have become more active, with schools and universities conducting special lessons on it due to the serious risks of ネット犯罪 (netto hanzai, internet crimes) such as 闇バイト (yami baito, dark part-time jobs).
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