Japan is the first country to tackle many social issues confronting a mature society, such as the declining birthrate and aging population, labor shortage, rural depopulation, and increased fiscal spending. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is considered a key technology to rescue society from these problems. (Government of Japan Citation2019: 1)
This quote, taken from the “Social Principles of Human-Centric AI,” a key Japanese policy document on the ethics of AI, captures something of the growing spectre of demographic crisis haunting the formulation of government policy. Yet it also encapsulates soaring expectations around AI and related technologies, including robotics and the Internet of Things (IoT), that have developed over the past two decades—expectations that have been turbocharged by the arrival of generative AI. The Japanese government is not alone in linking impending calamity with the presumed salvational potential of data-driven technologies. As South Korea’s President Moon put it in the introduction to his government’s 2019 National Strategy for AI:
AI is the culmination of a human dream to constantly complement shortcomings and become more perfect … AI will not only affect industrial sectors but also solve many issues facing our society: public health in an aging society [and] welfare for senior citizens living alone. (Government of Korea Citation2019: 4)
Both the Korean and Japanese governments routinely employ techno-utopian rhetoric in describing these technologies, portraying halcyon visions of positive social and economic transformation, while critical voices tend to be less prominent compared with the United States, Europe, and the United Kingdom.Footnote1
