ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Keita Ishii, President & COO; hereinafter "ITOCHU") announced today that it has agreed to establish a generative AI research laboratory jointly with BrainPad Inc. (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Takafumi Takahashi, CEO & Representative Director; hereinafter "BrainPad"). The laboratory will support corporate business transformation and new business development utilizing ChatGPT and other generative AI.

Remarkable progress continues to be achieved in the field of Generative AI, and ChatGPT is a leading example of the field. Generative AI is expected to significantly transform business processes and entire industries. Many companies and government agencies are considering the introduction of generative AI. However, to utilize it correctly and maximize its effect, it is necessary to correctly format and retain the source data. In addition, it is essential to enhance data governance to prevent information leaks and to have expertise and experience in data science to ensure the accurancy of the deliverables.

BrainPad is a leading company in corporate transformation leveraging data. Employing some 200 or more data scientists, the largest number of data scientists employed by one company in Japan, the company has been accumulating achievements in the implementation of machine learning, deep learning and natural language processing technique based on statistics, mathematical science and informatics for business. In the field of generative AI, BrainPad launched in-house projects and has been advancing its investigation and research on generative AI including large language models, aimed at facilitating corporate transformations by leveraging AI partnerships with Microsoft Japan Co., Ltd. while providing webinars on generative AI together with partner Google Cloud Japan G.K.

ITOCHU and BrainPad will create an environment in which all ITOCHU employees can freely use generative AI through the generative AI research laboratory that will be established, and begin the verification of the increased productivity in daily operations. Specifically, the companies aim to commercialize generative AI by managing an IT environment to prevent information leaks and building an environment to use AI models that have been trained using correct data sets and interfaces and in-house support systems that facilitate front line workers' use of generative AI. Going forward, the companies will consider the use of generative AI in the development of new businesses and in the ITOCHU Group's businesses. They will study the provision of functions for recommending optimal products and services according to customer attributes in the life consumption sector and measures to increase competitiveness, such as the automation of responses to inquiries related to the content of services.

Since ITOCHU concluded a capital and business tie-up with BrainPad in November 2020, it has optimized orders issued, inventory and logistics and enhanced the point of direct contact with consumers through the utilization of supply chain-related data in the food logistics industry, promoting the data utilization business with ITOCHU Group companies. In April 2021, ITOCHU's IT Planning Division was reorganized into the IT & Digital Strategy Division, which has been creating the in-house environment and sustainable internal manufacturing system to support the ITOCHU Group's digital transformation, building a solid business foundation for downstream commercial distribution.
Moving forward, ITOCHU will continue contributing to the establishment of a sustainable digital society from a market-oriented perspective, rooted in business solutions for markets and customers. In doing to, it will utilize the digital transformation-related experience, expertise and accumulated data possessed by BrainPad and ITOCHU in various business fields for the development of generative AI at the generative AI research laboratory to be established by BrainPad and ITOCHU's ICT Division and IT & Digital Strategy Division.