COMMUNICATIONS

At the end of last year, a conference was convened here in Kyoto. It concerned a group with which I have ties. It was my brief to deliver the opening address. I worked hard to prepare something of interest, and I had the audience laughing and clapping. I am reluctant to boast, but I was happy with the way it all turned out.

Afterwards, a bureaucrat from a central government ministry gave an address. It did not animate the audience, but I thought it was a fine, balanced speech.

The bureaucrat later told me that he had employed AI as his speech writer, and had simply then used what it came up with. “AI could never come up with a speech structured like yours, Professor Inoue,” he said. “Your speech was dissonant in the extreme, and yet you still managed to lighten the mood. I was impressed.”

If this were the opinion of a Kyoto-ite, I would not take it seriously. I would probably look for some irony beneath the surface. But I believe that this bureaucrat was sincere in the appreciation he bestowed on me. May I continue to produce work of a sort that AI can never aspire to. I am glad to have been re-affirmed in this.