EPISODE 192- Future Tech & Global Impact: NEC Corporate EVP and CTO (Executive Officer), Presiden...

I'd like to highlight three topics. One is our original LLM model which we produced about half a year ago. Its size is very compact — probably about one-thirteenth of other large models — and because of the reduced size it consumes much less power. The response is very quick and accuracy is very good. We benchmarked it and performance was very good. Secondly, NEC is good at face recognition, biometrics, and video recognition. We integrate those visual AI technologies with the LLM, and we can come up with many new solutions. We have already deployed that kind of solution in the public sector — that's the second topic. The third one is optical fiber sensing. NEC is good at communication networking and we are also one of the three major vendors deploying submarine cables. We recently noticed that those fibers could be useful even as vibration sensors. You can detect movement and many things along the fiber. So those three technologies are very surprising and impressive for me.

NEC started the concept of the R&D ecosystem about seven years ago. It expands the notion of open innovation further. For example, we provide our own technology to the outside so that outside people can utilize our technology for their purposes. Through this, we can find new types of markets that internal NEC cannot find — exploring new markets based on technology. The other aspect of the ecosystem is that we can utilize outside technology and explore new types of business. For example, we started new businesses in AI drug discovery and healthcare, which are absolutely outside NEC's original business. Through partnerships with outside companies, we can explore those areas and integrate our technology with other companies' technology. That's the deliverable of our ecosystem. Basically, our ecosystem creates a good environment for new NEC businesses and innovation.

We have seven laboratories all over the world, and each laboratory has its own feature and role. In North America, Europe, and Japan, we focus on core technology, while other laboratories focus more on solution research based on that core technology. That's the distribution of R&D. In terms of technology areas, I think AI, security, and networking are key parts for NEC, because we have a lot of system integration and new solutions or services based on those technologies. I want to highlight that most of them involve AI. As I mentioned in the first question, NEC launched new generative AI services and I feel AI has tremendous capability for the future. So actually, half of all researchers are focusing on AI technology right now.

In terms of advantages, NEC incorporates outside investment into our research, which means we can raise funding for some research and accelerate the commercialization of technology. Also, through acquiring technology from outside, NEC can explore new markets beyond current businesses — like AI drug discovery, healthcare, and agriculture. Those are typical examples of new business areas. In terms of disadvantages, since we incorporate investment from outside for R&D targets, we have limited governance over that company or area, so a good relationship with partners is essential. And another disadvantage — so far I don't have... I don't have any other type of concern.

As CTO, I have the responsibility to build the future technology assets for NEC's future businesses. I make a portfolio of technology for future businesses and allocate the budget based on that plan. Managing resources is very important. The other thing is incubation — like healthcare, AI drug discovery, and generative AI and applications around those sectors should explore new markets. That is a challenge for us. Especially in terms of generative AI, we made a new organization called the Generative AI Center, which includes research, commercial development, and business incubation. Since the progress of technology is so fast, we need to think about how to integrate R&D activity with commercial activity. Usually there's a pipeline from research to development, but it takes time, so we have to combine those. That's kind of the role for me.

There are many ways. One thing is related to different perspectives — other people think about the future based on their technology, but business people don't care about the technology. The business people think about how to utilize technology and for what kind of purposes. The purpose is very important, so their scope is different. But we have to align those different directions to one line. That's the important thing. All activity I'm doing in the CTO organization right now is how to connect those lines. To achieve that alignment, we made a couple of schemes in terms of budget, resource allocation, and also sharing the technology vision and business vision at the same time. Those human relationship and human understanding activities are very important inside the NEC group.

I'm originally an engineer working on networking projects and system integration. After that, I switched to a different business division with the mission of making new products for new markets — more of a business incubation activity I did for maybe ten years. After that, I joined the Research Laboratories and did research management all over the world. So in that sense, I have two perspectives: one from a design point of view and the other from a business and market point of view. That kind of valuable perspective I have could be a very good fit to what I'm doing right now. So that's all for me.

There are many projects all over the world. I want to point out one huge project: a digital identification solution for India. In India, there are so many newborn babies in some villages and rural areas that don't have a detailed registration scheme. We use identification technology — iris or fingerprint — for newborn babies. Through fingerprint or iris, you can identify a person beyond maybe a billion people. Through this, the Indian government launched a new type of national digital ID system called Aadhaar or something, which is very good for Indian healthcare and governance for the people. That is one thing — we are using biometric technology for that purpose. The other option is carbon neutrality. As an ICT company, we focus on computing, networking, AI, and software, but in order to achieve carbon neutrality, time-series monitoring and optimization of the system is very important. We can contribute in this aspect. There are many projects all over the world in the carbon neutrality area.

I wake up early in the morning and go to my office. I check my email and there are lots of meetings. Including discussions with laboratories, customers, and since I am CTO, I have a lot of relationship with various sectors and customers. I have to adapt to many types of customers and discuss and think about new solutions with them. Also, I have a lot of mini-trips overseas, including to subsidiaries and customer locations. So it's very busy, but also very exciting and good for my health and youthfulness.

Fortunately, NEC has had consecutive growth for three years, and the net sales and profit is increasing year by year. The stock price has also doubled since one year ago. Looking at the future, I think AI technology and new types of computing technology like quantum, and also new big spaces of networking like 5G or 6G, satellite communication — NEC is good at those areas. Each area has very astonishing breakthroughs right now. So in five years, ten years, I think we have tremendous opportunity for the future. Maybe society, economics, and industry may dramatically change. I hope NEC can contribute to transforming society and economics through technology.

Honestly speaking, making a CTO job is very interesting and sometimes fun. I like it because you can touch the best part of knowledge, the best part of talent, and you can also touch the most important parts of social problems or something. So I think until the day of my life, I want to touch those kind of things — maybe through industry, maybe through I don't know other parts. That's my wish.

Hi, I'm Motoo. I'm NEC's CTO. I'm a Corporate Executive Vice President. I'm in charge of the CTO organization of NEC and also in charge of intellectual property management and also new business incubation of healthcare business. Thank you.