Motoyuki Matsunaga(Senior Fellow, Institute for International Socio-Economic Studies)

April 2018 to March 2019

   With AI and IoT working together, the addition of blockchain (BC) technology is resulting in social implementations of and ICT (information and information technology) based on new concepts. Cloud computing has appeared on the Internet, allowing users to build cloud-based virtual information terminals that work just as if they were on the user’s desktop, even though the data storage and processing functions are performed at remote locations. This revolutionary new concept in computing, which was created by platforms such as Amazon and Google in the United States, is aimed at connecting not only PCs and smartphones to the Internet, but also a vast array of diverse information terminals. The Internet has become a huge platform for diverse information services, and the combination of AI and BC technologies has given rise to information services that coexist with people.

   The major difference from conventional information spaces is that information is perceived by the IoT, interpreted and learned by AI, and recorded and stored in a non-rewritable fashion by BC. In other words, the information space has human-like autonomous characteristics. For society to accept a new information space where vast amounts of information are rewritten by IoT and AI and then indelibly stored by BC, it is necessary to reconsider the concept of this subject.

   In this study, we considered a digital service platform for making use of complex AI with a view to implementing smart cities while unleashing next-generation elemental technologies on platforms equipped with IoT, AI, and BC, and we studied the preferred configuration of polymorphic smart cities. As part of this research, we also performed a survey of advanced case studies, including AoT (Array of Things) in Chicago, X-Road in Estonia, and GDS in London, which is deploying an autonomous service platform.

   In this research, we convened an IoT study group and implemented studies with experts. In FY2018, we were joined by Professor Katsuhiro Nishinari (Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo) and Associate Professor Takafumi Nakanishi (Faculty of Data Science, Musashino University), and we conducted a joint study on smart cities of the near future based on the theme of the evolution of AI and its impact on self-driving vehicles and communication/traffic infrastructure. On March 19, 2019, we held a symposium where people involved in this research were able to take part in further discussions.