Japan has been facing rapid development of declining birthrate and aging population. Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare estimates the population in 2053 will be less than 100 million. The working population will be also getting less, and as a result the shortage of human resource will be getting worse. Teikoku Databank Ltd. released a report on Jan. 9th, 2020, describing that, the number of bankruptcies due to human resource shortage in 2019 was 20.9% larger than that in 2018, hitting highest records in consecutive four years. Taking a look at the industry types, the highest number was 54 in service industry, and the highest increase rate was recorded in wholesale industry. As bankruptcies due to human resource shortage are assumed to be getting worse, artificial intelligence is gathering attentions. For example, we may be able to utilize limited human resource internally by making AI conduct regular repetitive operations.
Unclear responsibility is a weak point to take advantage of AI. Machine learning technologies, such as Deep Learning, made AI popular, and it can make more precise decisions than human beings, in some cases, by huge data study. For example, with regard to automatic driving, steering wheel operations will be conducted by AI, instead of human beings. If any accident occurs, who is responsible for it? The company who created the AI, or the person who was on the vehicle? This is not clearly defined on any law. It’s important to discuss how we utilize AI and also how we should construct the legal architecture.