A report from Science and Technology Daily: 

The 17th Beijing-Tokyo Forum was held from October 25 to 26 in Beijing and 
Tokyo online and offline simultaneously.

Co-hosted by China International Publishing Group (CIPG) and Japanese 
non-profit think tank the Genron NPO, participants from both countries shared 
ideas and held in-depth dialogues on digital economy, artificial 
intelligence(AI), economic and trade cooperation, and cultural exchanges during 
the two-day forum.

At the sub-forum of the 17th Beijing-Tokyo Forum on October 26, both Chinese 
and Japanese experts held candid and in-depth discussions on the prospects of 
bilateral cooperation in digital society and AI, and reached consensus on 
relevant issues.

Sino-Japanese digital cooperation boasts great prospects

Xu Zhilong, editor-in-chief of the Science and Technology Daily said at the 
forum, "The development of digital economy is not merely the development of 
digital technologies or products, but to build an ecological system of digital 
economy."

Tatsuo Yamasaki, distinguished professor of the International University of 
Health and Welfare expressed his hope that this platform could explore 
solutions to the issues concerned the community with a shared future for 
mankind, such as the care of the elderly in an aging society, AI enabling 
climate change monitoring, tracking carbon footprint through AI technology, 
reducing energy consumption, and integrating traditional energy with new 
technologies.

Pang Dazhi, vice president of NetEase believes that the young generation in 
China and Japan gets to know each other's culture through digital products, 
such as animation, games, music and movies. "In fact, based on the same 
cultural heritage and highly complementary technology on game development, the 
two countries have broad space for cooperation in the field of digital culture 
and digital economy."

Novel trends and scenarios of digital economy

Duan Dawei, Senior vice president at iFLYTEK Co.Ltd. said, there is great room 
for cooperation between China and Japan in the field of AI. "China and Japan 
face common challenges in education, medical care, care for elderly people and 
other areas. Thus, we can discuss how to offer better service to the public 
through AI technology."

Taro Shimada, Senior VP of Toshiba corporation, said that the use of logistics 
data is vulnerable to natural disasters. "Both China and Japan are committed to 
improving the toughness of supply chain through sci-tech. Facing the shock of 
COVID-19, logistics data presents both opportunities and challenges. Common 
sense has been reached on the sharing of logistics data, promoting the use of 
logistics data to a new level."

Jeff Shi, vice president of SenseTime, said AI can help solve the aging problem 
faced by both China and Japan, dealing with the practical challenge of 
productivity shortage. "AI can help solve the productivity shortfall. 
Meanwhile, AI itself is trying to improve productivity by reducing its reliance 
on data and humans."

"Zero carbonisation" gains momentum through digital economy

AI helps develop new materials such as new catalysts, said Junichi Hasegawa, 
COO of Preferred Networks. "Photovoltaic, hydraulic and hydrogen energy are all 
commonly discussed energy sources, whereas they all belong to secondary energy 
sources. Therefore, carbon emissions are unavoidable in the production of these 
new energies and how to reduce carbon emissions in producing these energy is an 
important issue."

In addition, human society is inseparable from computers. How to reduce the 
power consumption of its data centers and develop new computers with higher 
efficiency and less emissions is also worth thinking about.

"Total global carbon emissions fell by a record 7 percent in 2020 from the 
previous year due to the COVID-19 pandemic," said Liu Song, vice president of 
Pingkai Xingchen (Beijing) Technology Co.Ltd., "However, economic activities 
did not suspend, the reason is the vigorous development of Internet economy."

Liu said that online activities can significantly reduce carbon emissions while 
ensuring normal economic development. We may seek new path on energy 
conservation and emission reduction through the use, transmission and storage 
of data in the future.

Data protection and security are focused

Hiromi Yamaoka, board member of Future corporation, said that developing AI 
needs to address concerns on privacy collection. "The application of AI 
requires the collection of high-quality data, which involves the aspects of 
data governance, privacy protection and other issues. In the process of 
developing AI, the concerns should be tackled. In addition, when it comes to 
cross-border data flows, countries around the world should reach a consensus to 
ensure the security of data flow,"said he.

Liu also shared idea on this topic, saying that the boundaries of national 
security and personal privacy need to be clearly defined. China has paid 
attention to the dialectical relationship between development and security of 
data flow.

Source: Science and Technology Daily

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   Caption: Sub-forum of the 17th Beijing-Tokyo Forum on 26 Oct. (PHOTO: 
Science and Technology Daily)