NTT DATA advances Responsible AI and global innovation at Ignite event

NTT DATA underscored its commitment to responsible artificial intelligence and measurable business results at its recent NTT DATA Ignite event in Malaysia. During his keynote, CEO, Henrick Choo, outlined a vision rooted in industry collaboration, real-world application, and global partnerships.

“With responsible AI implementation and measurable business outcomes as our focus, NTT DATA is all in – helping clients unlock innovation within a trusted ecosystem,” Henrick stated.He credited the company’s partners and sponsors for driving technological breakthroughs, noting, “Innovation, we can’t do it alone. Collaboration is key.”

NTT DATA, now operating in 54 countries, shared its growing list of accolades and their deep investment in upskilling their leaders and employees.

A project centerpiece is the new Gen AI Tech House – a platform akin to GitHub – which, according to Choo, already features over 86 reusable AI assets for rapid prototyping and production scaling. Choo encouraged attendees to explore these resources and see live demonstrations during the event. 

The event also featured a keynote from NTT DATA’s President and CEO, reaffirming the company’s R&D commitment and vision to “ignite tomorrow, today.” 

The R&D initiative

NTT Data is driven by a mission to make the world’s digital revolution smarter, greener, and more ethically grounded. During his keynote, NTT Research President and CEO, Kazuhiro Gomi, recounted nearly three decades of his company’s involvement in Malaysia’s technological rise and set out the company’s ambitions at the leading edge of AI and IT infrastructure.

NTT Data’s USD3 billion annual R&D budget empowers a global team of 2,000 research staff to push the boundaries not just in telecommunications, but in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and next-generation computing.

This massive worldwide resource works towards answering the all-important question of,  ‘What can be done better, by advancing the technology to the next step, to make everybody’s life better and businesses more successful?’

Their current focus is on making AI both omnipresent and sustainable. “AI is everywhere,”Kazuhiro-san noted, but warned of the enormous environmental costs, “AI, at the end of the day, requires so much energy.” Citing predictions that global AI workloads could soon consume up to 10% of the US’s total electricity, the company is responding with bold technical initiatives.

Much of NTT Data’s strategy centres on innovative optical and wireless networking (IOWN), aimed at supplanting traditional semiconductors with optical technologies that transmit – and ultimately compute – data using light, drastically reducing energy demand. 

The company’s R&D labs are already experimenting with non-silicon, optical wave-based machine learning systems. “By utilising optical technology, we can replace a lot of the current AI platforms …we can reduce the energy footprint drastically, maybe a few percent of what we have today,” he asserted.

The physics of AI

The company is also tackling the ethical, trustworthy, and explainable AI. Under the banner “physics of AI,” NTT Data’s researchers are exploring how to understand and correct AI learning at a fundamental level. “When you think of AI, we are at the stage where people know that apples fall from the tree to the ground, but we cannot explain why. So, we need to create physics to explain why it is. And once we have that, we believe and we hope that trusted AI can be really creative once we get there.”

In addition, privacy-preserving AI training is becoming a necessity. NTT Data’s “Bill proof” technology uses attribute-based encryption to redact sensitive information while enabling selective access in AI data pipelines. 

“Depending upon who you are, who are consuming the data, we can control how much data can be revealed,” Kazuhiro explained.

NTT Data’s commitment to collaboration, ethical development, and sustainable progress is reflected not just in its labs, but also on the global stage where it convenes experts from technology, philosophy, and religion to tackle the deepest questions of the AI era. This is reflected in the company’s participation in the inaugural Kyoto Conference organised by the Kyoto Institute of Philosophy, last September.