ELSI’s challenges in the era of advanced AI

    Chuo University ELSI Center and The University of Osaka established the Research Center on Ethical, Legal and Social Issues (The University of Osaka ELSI Center) jointly hosted the "University ELSI Summit", a two-day event held on March 15^th and 16^th, 2025 (Saturday-Sunday) at Chuo University's Korakuen Campus (Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan).

    ELSI (Ethical, Legal and Social Issues) and RRI (Responsible Research and Innovation) are seeing rapid development globally. These approaches are being examined across various fields both domestically and internationally. The ELSI University Summit focused on ELSI and RRI initiatives in academia and industry. These initiatives concentrate on research areas related to advanced AI and social challenges. The summit included reports from multiple stakeholders responsible for development, utilization, and regulation — including the business community, government agencies, educational institutions, science and engineering researchers, and humanities researchers. In addition, through Q&A sessions and panel discussions, the summit engaged in intensive discussions about their respective roles and the importance of collaboration. The event attracted a total of 607 on-site participants and online ones.

    The summit opened with keynote speeches by Professor SUDO Osamu, Director of Chuo University ELSI Center (at the time of the event), and Professor KISHIMOTO Atsuo, Director of The University of Osaka ELSI Center, which sparked the discussions.

   Professor SUDO of Chuo University predicted that the current situation of "AI democratization and popularization," brought about by using advanced AI through natural language (prompts), will accelerate further, leading to the development of highly versatile multimodal AI and robots and their social proliferation. He stated that such developments would lead to major transformations in all important complex systems, including disaster prevention, administration, healthcare and welfare, finance, education, transportation, and national defense. He also introduced the emergence of AI that not only surpasses human abilities, exemplified by China's "DeepSeek-R1" which significantly impacted the world in January 2025, but also AI that performs advanced reasoning such as "reflection" without being explicitly programmed, such as DeepSeek-R1, and AI that enables intuitive responses, such as Chat-GPT4.5. Amid expectations of a future where AI capabilities will be dramatically expanded through the combination of such abilities, Professor SUDO emphasized his view, while referencing various government movements, that "what human society and institutions using AI should be like, and the ELSI perspective, are becoming increasingly important." Finally, he expressed his desire to strengthen university collaboration nationwide, centered on The University of Osaka ELSI Center and Chuo University ELSI Center, as well as to create flexible cooperation and collaborative activities with universities worldwide. He also pointed out that universities play an important role in setting evaluation indicators for Responsible AI, which is valued globally, and in facilitating multi-stakeholder discussions.

    Professor KISHIMOTO began by mentioning the establishment of The University of Osaka ELSI Center as a research center that co-creates "social technology." "Social technology" refers to the knowledge that bridges the gap between technology and society. He explained that the absence of social technology leads to stumbling blocks during the social implementation of new technologies, or situations where social implementation cannot progress when potential issues arising from the utilization of developed technologies remain unresolved. Professor KISHIMOTO reported many achievements as examples of initiatives to co-create social technology, including the development of industry-academia collaboration in humanities and social sciences based on agile research styles, and the establishment of The University of Osaka's first humanities and social sciences collaborative research institute. In addressing previous ELSI challenges, they have sought solutions after exploring whether the causes of gaps between what is technically possible and what is socially acceptable lie in Legal, Ethics, or Social Issues that constitute ELSI. However, legal regulations, which have been heavily emphasized, not only lag behind the pace of technological innovation but also tend to create these gaps in unstable societies. He pointed out that in the uncertain times ahead, the importance of ethics will become relatively greater. As examples of this trend, Professor KISHIMOTO introduced that the introduction of research ethics review is actually progressing in corporate AI development, university research activities other than medical research, and education.

    Subsequently, current challenges, future prospects, and advanced case studies were shared through seven special lectures and 14 general presentations. From academia, experts in law, sociology, policy studies, economics, philosophy, cultural anthropology, and other fields reported on ELSI initiatives at 12 universities from multiple perspectives. From the government standpoint, IIDA Yoichi, Special Negotiator for International Information and Communications Strategy, International Strategy Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, shared the latest developments in international trends in AI governance based on the Hiroshima AI Process led by Japan. HIRAMOTO Kenji, Deputy Director of Japan AI Safety Institute (AISI), introduced his organization's efforts to support public-private initiatives through collaboration between 10 ministries and agencies and 5 government-related organizations centered on the Cabinet Office, clarifying Japan's position on AI utilization. TORISAWA Kentaro, Associate Director General of Universal Communication Research Institute at the National Institute, Information and Communications Technology (NICT), discussed the risks of generative AI from a developer's perspective and advocated for the necessity of utilizing generative AI to prevent its misuse. From the industrial sector, case reports were presented by NTT Corporation, IBM Japan, Ltd., and Microsoft Japan Co., Ltd. (MSJ), which are engaged in AI development and utilization. Additionally, TSUNODA Katsu, President and COO of The Asahi Shimbun Company, indicated that the important role of journalism in the AI era is to connect cutting-edge discussions among industry, government, and academia with society.

    The panel discussion titled "The Future of AI and Human Imagination," held at the end of the second day, featured panelists Specially Appointed Associate Professor KUDO Fumiko of The University of Osaka (Information Law and Policy), Associate Professor SAITO Kunifumi of Keio University (Civil Law), President TOKUDA Hideyuki of NICT (Computer Science), Senior Vice President KINOSHITA Shingo, Head of R&D Planning Department at NTT Corporation, and Professor KIMURA Tadamasa of Rikkyo University (Cultural Anthropology). Moderated by Vice Director ISHII Kaori, Chuo University ELSI Center, discussions were conducted from a wide range of fields and standpoints. Panelists made comments expressing their expectation that ELSI would serve not only as brakes and guardrails for technology, but also play directional roles like a steering wheel and headlights. There were also comments envisioning a future where co-creation between development teams and ELSI teams in technology development, not limited to AI, becomes commonplace. These discussions explored future scenarios where ELSI/RRI will be needed more extensively and deeply.

   Participants provided feedback such as "It was an event with a very multi-layered structure that was impressive," "I was able to take back many learnings," and "I could hear various expert opinions, both overlapping and differing, making me even more excited about future discussions," achieving the goal of the summit to connect multi-stakeholders. With many voices hoping for the continuation of such events, if continued connections deepen discussions with multi-stakeholders and further promote Japan's ELSI/RRI, it is expected to contribute to accelerating research and development and innovation in advanced science and technology. It will also contribute to exploring sophisticated responses to various social challenges and envisioning better future societies.

    This event aligns with the goals of Rome Call for AI Ethics (https://www.romecall.org/the-call/), of which Chuo University is the only signatory institution among Japanese universities. Rome Call advocates "to establish an ethical approach to AI design, development, and deployment, make commitments related to ethics, rights, and education, and create the future with a shared sense of responsibility among international organizations, governments, researchers, academia and private companies." The two days were also dedicated to promoting the six principles of AI ethics: Transparency, Inclusion, Accountability, Impartiality, Reliability, Security and Privacy.

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