European and Japanese companies continuously find themselves at the forefront of smart manufacturing, with a rising number of manufacturers implementing AI solutions into their core operations. Examples include companies, both in the EU and Japan, adopting AI-powered predictive maintenance, generative design or computer vision-based quality control of production processes. Yet, cooperation between the two world regions has yet “to be strengthened and transformed into a long-lasting relationship”, says the team behind EU.Japan-AI. This is why the project was created: To bridge the gap between European and Japanese AI-driven innovation in manufacturing and the development of digital industrial platforms, EU-Japan.AI has created an online platform connecting all area-relevant stakeholders. IRCAI’s contribution to the project is the EU Japan Observatory, where various interactive infographics on AI, manufacturing and related fields can be found.
Aiming to exchange knowledge and information on AI for manufacturing, the project collects and analyzes information to generate a comprehensive understanding of the AI and manufacturing ecosystem in Europe and Japan, as well as challenges and motivators for its uptake. By sharing experiences from practitioners from both world regions, the project hopes to generate a better consensus on the most pressing issues the industry is facing, as well as to identify the areas where AI-driven manufacturing can flourish the most. Thereby, the information analyzed by EU-Japan.AI is broad – ranging from policy statements, mappings of existing stakeholder ecosystems, to opinion papers on the legal, social and ethical concerns that can arise from the implementation of AI-driven manufacturing practices.
By having community members join their online platform, EU.Japan-AI allows them to find collaborators for any projects they might launch, discuss possible research projects and boost awareness of their research results as well as engaging civil society about the goals and outcomes of their research. Moreover, community members are kept up to date about the local manufacturing industries by providing them with regular news, articles and infographics summarizing the key issues in the world of AI for Manufacturing. People who are interested in joining can do so by filling in this form: eu-japan.ai/register/.
