Japanese tech giant Rakuten plans to launch proprietary AI model

Rakuten, a Japanese tech giant, is planning to launch its own proprietary large language model (LLM), a type of AI model trained on massive datasets. The company has a diverse range of businesses, including banking, e-commerce, and telecommunications, which provide it with a unique and extensive dataset for training its LLM. Rakuten intends to use the AI model internally to improve operational efficiency and marketing by 20%. Additionally, the company plans to offer the model to third-party businesses much like Amazon or Microsoft do. The CEO, Hiroshi “Mickey” Mikitani, believes that the push into AI will give Rakuten “huge profitable growth.”