OpenAI Artificial Intelligence Gets Test Run By Top Japanese Bank

Japanese banking giant Mizuho will let 45,000 employees test the use of OpenAI artificial intelligence later this week. It joins a long list of Japan’s banks that are doing so.

Japanese banking giant Mizuho will let its employees test OpenAI’s tools. Mizuho is Japan’s third-largest bank, and the move is significant for both the banking and AI industries.

Mizuho will allow employees from its core lending unit access to the tool through Azure OpenAI, and they will start doing so as early as this week. That means 45,000 individuals will be able to use generative AI tools in various ways.

One of the proposed uses is to have the AI tool serve as a “one-stop reference point for the bank’s vast trove of internal rules, processes and other manuals.”

This is in direct contrast to what North American banks are doing, which are seeking to impose restrictions on the use of the AI tool. Mizuho’s executives are aware that there might be AI risks but hope that guidelines will help mitigate these potential issues.

Japanese Financial Giants Embrace Artificial Intelligence

Japan has enthusiastically taken to using AI products, with several financial juggernauts beginning related initiatives. The Daiwa Securities Group and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group are among those doing so.

The latter will use the chatbot for drafting approval requests and responding to internal inquiries. In Daiwa’s case, ChatGPT will be used to gather information in English.

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group is also tapping into AI, forming a partnership with Microsoft Japan to roll out the tool to employees later this year. The use will be similar to what Mizuho has planned.

Wall Street Cracking Down on ChatGPT

While Mizuho may be open to utilizing OpenAI, other firms have been imposing limitations on ChatGPT usage. Wall Street banks have been cracking down on ChatGPT, just as governments and tech organizations have. People close to the matter have said that banks are currently restricting such use, according to Bloomberg.

Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and Wells Fargo are among the banks that are imposing restrictions. These banks have blocked access to the product in a bid to preemptively protect themselves from any unintended consequences. However, while Mizuho is incorporating OpenAI’s tool, Japan’s privacy watchdog has issued a warning.