The “Data Shinkansen Plan” is a vision for developing a data infrastructure that enables entities requiring data—such as AI development companies—to rapidly collect necessary information from across the nation through a system known as “Data Income.”
To ensure the safe advancement of AI, it is not enough to simply make algorithms smarter; the establishment of a secure and reliable “data infrastructure” is essential.
The foundation of this vision is the Data Road Plan. A data infrastructure that provides equitable access to everyone is extremely important as the “foundation of knowledge” for society as a whole.
To ensure AI safety, we need a mechanism for data collection based on democratic processes. Only when a secure and transparent data foundation is established can AI achieve sustainable development that is deeply rooted in society.
In this Data Road Plan, the “Data Income” system serves as an effective mechanism for data collection. Under the Data Income system, payments can be divided into two components (as illustrated by the development of Democratic Local Sovereign AI):
Fixed Component: Similar to the construction of public roads or Universal Basic Income, this portion can be funded through public resources.
Variable Component: AI developers and other entities solicit the specific data they require, with payments made through private funding.
This can be compared to the development of “public roads” available to everyone and “toll roads” that require a fee for use.
The Data Road Plan also includes infrastructure equivalent to “toll expressways”. This can rapidly gather necessary data from across the country when AI developers or other entities request specific datasets. To achieve this, it is indispensable to establish “Data Income”—a new intellectual property framework for data.
In this endeavor, we must also consider the “Data Circulation Limitation Hypothesis,” which suggests that without a new intellectual property framework for data, the circulation and sharing of information will inevitably be constrained.
Furthermore, the Data Shinkansen Plan serves as the infrastructure to enable even higher-speed data circulation. The training of AI models demands a mechanism that can rapidly supply vast amounts of high-quality data. This is where the “expressway” component of the Data Road Plan and the even faster “Data Shinkansen” become necessary.
A dual-layered structure—consisting of broadly open infrastructure, like the public roads that support our daily lives, and specialized networks, such as expressways and high-speed railways that rapidly supply massive volumes of data—will be the driving force behind the safe and exponential advancement of an AI-driven society.
The key to building a new AI society where Japan leads the world lies in how we efficiently and securely move the resource known as “data.” The development of this new infrastructure—the “roads” and “railways” of data—transcends mere technological innovation; it will serve as the foundation for the sustainable growth of society as a whole.
Let us begin to concretely draw the vision for the future, powered by Japan’s very own Data Road Plan and Data Shinkansen Plan.
[References]
Please see the references in the Data Income Page and the Data Road Plan Page.
Japanese Link: Data Shinkansen Plan
