AIs to Monitor Each Other in Few Years’ Time, Says NTT Vice President; AI Constellation to Be Linked by Next-gen Network

By Yasuhiro Kobayashi/ Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent

12:55 JST, April 13, 2024

SAN FRANCISCO — Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. will within the next few years launch a system of linked AIs to stop the spread of fake information, NTT Vice President Katsuhiko Kawazoe told The Yomiuri Shimbun.In the system, called an AI constellation, if one AI produces an answer that includes fake information or bias, other AIs will indicate there is a problem.

“By preventing dependence on a particular AI, we want to push toward the democratization of AI,” said Kawazoe in an interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun in San Francisco on Wednesday.

The AI constellation will be connected through the Innovative Optical and Wireless Network (IOWN), a next-generation telecommunications network being developed by NTT.

When a question is asked to NTT’s generative AI tsuzumi, answers by multiple AIs will be displayed at the same time.“Existing AI can’t criticize itself, and it’s a dictator so to speak. To ensure that AIs will be used appropriately, we’ll have them monitor each other and keep each other in check,” Kawazoe said.

IOWN is capable of high-speed, large-capacity transmissions using optical technology, and can run multiple AIs at once. AIs have also caused concern with their tendency to “hallucinate,” or state things that are not true as fact, but Kawazoe says, “If we can compare multiple answers, we can avoid AI’s biases and errors.”

NTT and The Yomiuri Shimbun released Monday their “Joint Proposal on Shaping Generative AI” in a bid to balance control and use of AI. To ensure such balance as well as spaces for healthy discussions, the proposal states that “it is necessary to ensure that there are multiple AIs of various kinds and of equal rank.” The AI constellation initiative is one measure to this end.