Japan’s leading developer of new AI technologies Fujitsu accelerates its commitment to open source innovation with new projects hosted in LF AI & Data

Fujitsu Limited and the Linux Foundation today marked the official launch of Fujitsu’s automated machine learning and AI fairness technologies as open source software (OSS) ahead of “Open Source Summit Europe 2023,” running in Bilbao, Spain, from September 19-21, 2023.

The Linux Foundation is the world’s leading home for collaboration on open source software, hardware, standards, and data. It’s projects are critical to the world’s infrastructure including Linux, Kubernetes, Node.js, ONAP, PyTorch, RISC-V, SPDX, and OpenChain

The two projects will offer users access to software that automatically generates code for new machine learning models, as well as a technology that addresses latent biases in training.

The Linux Foundation approved the incubation of two new projects, “SapientML” and “Intersectional Fairness” on August 24 to encourage developers worldwide to further experiment and innovate with AI and machine learning technologies, with plans to host future activities like hackathons to engage and build a community to promote open source AI.

Jim Zemlin, Executive Director, The Linux Foundation, comments said, “We anticipate that offering Fujitsu’s automated machine learning and AI fairness technologies as OSS will greatly contribute to the advancement and diffusion of AI. The Linux Foundation welcomes these two projects and looks forward to building the future of AI together.”

Fujitsu and the Linux Foundation aim to further democratise AI to realise a world in which developers everywhere can easily and securely use the latest technologies on open platforms to create new applications and find innovative solutions to challenges facing business and society.

According to Vivek Mahajan, SEVP, CTO, CPO, Fujitsu Limited, comments offering AI technologies as OSS to developers worldwide opens up new opportunities for innovation across various industries by lowering the barrier of entry.

“We are excited to work together with Linux Foundation to contribute to the further advancement and spread of AI by launching Fujitsu’s AI technologies for the Linux Foundation’s open source projects ‘SapientML’ and ‘Intersectional Fairness.'” said Mahajan

Artificial intelligence stands out as one of the swiftest-evolving technologies in our era, actively addressing a multitude of societal and industrial challenges.

Nevertheless, the continual progression of AI demands a high level of expertise in its development and deployment, and concerns about its equitable use continue to grow.

To facilitate the wider dissemination and improvement of AI, the establishment of a global platform for open sharing of AI technologies among engineers emerges as a crucial prerequisite.

Japan’s leading AI Developer Demonstrates Commitment To Open Innovation.

Fujitsu holds the largest number of AI-related inventions in Japan, with 970 patents from 2014 to October 2022, and in April 2023, launched “Fujitsu Kozuchi (code name) – Fujitsu AI Platform”.

Kozuchi enables users to rapidly and securely test advanced AI technologies and has offered a wide range of customers and partners access to some of Fujitsu’s most advanced AI technologies.

In its capacity as a non-profit technology consortium, the Linux Foundation greenlights roughly a dozen chosen technologies each year to become open-source projects for the advancement of open technologies.

Fujitsu is generously contributing automated machine learning and AI fairness technologies as open-source software through the Linux Foundation in a move that empowers developers worldwide to freely access and utilise Fujitsu’s technology at the source code level

Simultaneously, the initiative takes a proactive stance in addressing ongoing concerns regarding fairness and transparency, which remain pivotal in the realm of AI ethics.

About The Two AI Projects

SapientML focuses on developing an Automated Machine Learning (AutoML) technology that produces code for rapidly building machine learning models using tabular data. It empowers data scientists to create precise and interpretable AI models swiftly.

With this innovation, data scientists can instantly generate highly accurate models and fine-tune them for improved performance using the generated code, streamlining the model development process.

The Intersectional Fairness project addresses the issue of fairness in AI by targeting the detection and mitigation of biases that may not be readily apparent. It focuses on combatting discrimination against particular groups resulting from biased training data.

The project’s primary goal is to create an AI fairness technology capable of identifying and mitigating “intersectional biases,” which arise when multiple attributes, such as age, gender, and nationality, interact in complex ways, often overlooked in AI systems.

For example, pass rate of young women in an exam is only 33.3%, a significantly lower rate than the rest of the group; this bias, pass rate difference, becomes apparent only when the combination of attributes for investigating the rate is considered.

AI fairness technology aims to mitigate such biases while maintaining sufficient accuracy by using a method that adjusts the bias for each group and determines the acceptance line for readjusting the bias from the perspective of the whole.

Fujitsu has been further providing its technologies for automated machine learning and AI fairness as “Fujitsu AutoML” and “Fujitsu AI Ethics for Fairness,” together with various AI technologies and GUIs via the “Fujitsu Kozuchi (code name) – Fujitsu AI Platform.”

In the ever-evolving landscape of AI, endeavors like these provide a glimpse into the potential of collaborative, open-source initiatives to guide technology in a way that harmonizes with our shared societal principles.

This signifies a forthcoming era in which AI is no longer the domain of the privileged few but instead emerges as a universal instrument for worldwide advancement

Fujitsu Leads AI Development In Japan

With over 970 AI-related patents from 2014 to October 2022, Fujitsu leads AI development in Japan. Earlier this year, the company launched “Fujitsu Kozuchi,” an AI platform enabling rapid and secure testing of advanced AI technologies.

This prodigious innovation output underpins the company’s strong market position in digital services and advanced technologies like AI.