2023.Jan.12

REPORTS

Report on a Visit to SoftBank HQ at Tokyo Portcity Takeshiba

“As the products we sell change, the company itself has to transform;
The obvious is no longer the obvious”

– AI Project Promotion Department AI Strategy Office Team,
SoftBank Corp.

 

 

On 16^th November 2022, several members from the B’AI Global Forum visited SoftBank’s newest headquarters at Tokyo Portcity Takeshiba. We met with Mr. Eiji Nakagawa of the AI Project Promotion Department AI Strategy Office and his team members Mr. Akihiro Kobayashi, Mr. Kenji Urano, and Ms. Mami Takahashi. We discussed AI and IoT in infrastructure, ethics and governance in AI, and how to develop policies in AI that will not compromise on diversity and inclusion.

Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s policies towards the realization of smart cities promote the deployment of technological solutions for the betterment of city infrastructure by increasing mobility and disaster prevention technologies. SoftBank implemented various solutions at Tokyo Portcity Takeshiba, as a model case for smart cities, and hopes to expand the technology in the vicinity and other cities by linking data with other cities. Tokyo Portcity Takeshiba is a 42-story, state-of-the-art, mixed-use building complex with commercial and business facilities. SoftBank occupies the 12^th to 39^th floor for office purposes. A detached 18-story residential tower, also using the latest technologies for infrastructure management, is located on the quiet eastern side of the complex.

We first visited the 19^th floor for a brief presentation from Mr. Nakagawa on how exactly SoftBank uses AI and IoT to manage the infrastructure. From the conference room, we could see a 2.5km stretch of Takeshiba canal with its several bridges, a Venetian view of Tokyo that is hard to find in any magazines or city promotion ads whatsoever. Every floor had impressive, exclusive views of Tokyo, but the most impressive feature of the building was the building itself. The AI and IoT technology, utilizing data from over 1400 sensors, is used for several practical purposes.  One main use is the live monitoring of the number of occupants in various areas such as cafeterias, washrooms, etc., The system uses advanced Vayyar Imaging and the real-time data of the people in the building are also available to the general public through the Tokyo Portcity Takeshiba website. The AI face recognition camera at the office entrance makes the entry/exit management effortless for the employees and when an employee walks in, the system automatically recommends which of 8 elevators they could use to get to their respective department, thus efficiently saving resources. This has been incredibly effective, as in the past the employees had to be organized to start work at different times just to avoid congested elevators. Other than congestion management, AI and IoT are also used in SQ-2, the security robot, and Whiz, the commercial cleaning robot, etc. It is to be noted that SoftBank has been transforming their work culture since 2016. They adopted the “Super flex system” in 2017 where employees have more freedom over their schedule and in 2018, they established satellite offices through WeWork. SoftBank has been using technology to equip for change well before the pandemic made these systems a necessity.

It is not only the soft infrastructure such as AI and IoT but also the innovations in the hard infrastructure that has contributed to the holistic transformation of the work culture. The 3-in-1 design, where 3 floors are connected using internal staircases, is used throughout the office spaces in the building. Certain features are deliberately placed across the three floors encouraging the employees to use the stairs more often. While also saving electricity, this enables ‘unexpected encounters’ with other employees hence increasing the opportunity for interaction and small talk, thereby increasing a sense of belongingness within the company.  Mr. Kobayashi who has been working with the company for over two decades acknowledges how the change in the spatial design has positively impacted the work culture. He says, “We are frequently able to meet people we usually don’t get to meet like members we used to work with as part of an old team.” Mr. Urano adds, “While we get to meet people we hardly meet, the opposite also holds true. With the new work culture, we don’t have designated spaces, and it is not guaranteed that the person you are looking for is always going to be there. The obvious is no longer the obvious, giving us opportunities to adapt in various ways.”

Technology lets us manage innumerable data, which is going to result in transformations at a high speed and it is crucial that no one gets left behind in this accelerated process. This is also an opportunity to correct the unfair ways through which our society has been operating. This is where the collaboration between industry and academia becomes vital. After our discussion on the infrastructure, we discussed AI ethics & governance and diversity & inclusion. Mr. Urano talked about the progress in AI governance at SoftBank. Risks can be reduced by strengthening governance, but this reduces the degree of freedom at which we can venture into new avenues. Mr. Nakagawa explained how this can be facilitated with a good balance of offense and defense. We further discussed AI governance policy formulation and the importance of implementing appropriate e-learning tools for all employees. Following this Project Researcher Kayoung Kim of the B’AI talked about the University of Tokyo’s efforts taken toward the promotion of diversity and inclusion. She introduced the awareness and fact-finding Survey on diversity at the University of Tokyo conducted in 2020 and UTokyo Compass, which is a statement of guiding principles, announced in September 2021, that outlines UTokyo’s aspirations to create a truly diverse and inclusive community.

Towards the end of our visit, we moved our discussions to the cafeteria on the 30^th floor, yet again with exclusive views of Tokyo, overlooking Odaiba and the Rainbow Bridge. We ended our visit with a final stop at the paddy field on the 4^th floor terrace. The paddy field utilizes AI technology and helps improve the thermal environment. It also offers people experiences of seasonal changes through Japanese rice farming culture. The juxtaposition of a paddy field in the middle of a high-tech city is, in a sense, a symbolic statement. A statement emphasizing the symbiotic relationship between entities that were thought to be incapable of coexisting together, which, I believe is what Diversity & Inclusion is all about.