Japan considers relaxing personal information regulations to promote AI development

TOKYO, Jan. 9 (Jiji Press) – The Japanese government announced on Friday that it will submit a bill to revise the Personal Information Protection Law aimed at relaxing regulations on the acquisition of personal data and promoting the development of artificial intelligence.

The bill would remove the need for consent to train AI on certain personal information, such as criminal history, medical history, and race.

Large-scale data learning is essential for improving AI accuracy. However, under current law, consent is required in principle to obtain such personal information and provide it to third parties.

The government plans to submit the bill to the regular Diet session starting January 23rd.

The bill would also introduce a system that would impose fines on companies that engage in egregious behavior, such as trading in large amounts of personal data.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]