JSPS and JFIT held a symposium “AI and the Future of Society: A Global Approach to Understanding the Digital Disruption” on April 27 and 28 in cooperation with the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, the German Institute for Japan Studies and several other organizations.

The conference brought together scholars from Japan, the U.S. and Germany, to explore the “state of the art” of social science thinking about the ongoing technological disruption, innovation, and national policy responses in different countries. The Conference was open to many different lines of inquiry, including:

• What are the new complexities of the men-machine relationship, ongoing societal challenges, and new issues such as job replacement or ethical priority rankings of self-driven cars or automated surgeons?
• How are large companies responding to the disruption: what are new business models, corporate strategies, or operations management and human resource practices?
• How should we think about new regulatory structures and global agreements, e.g. on privacy and cybersecurity, in the health sciences, or for robots and drones?
• What are the legal, ethical and societal challenges associated with the fast pace of technological change?
• What is the impact of these developments on innovation and entrepreneurship, including government policies and market responses such as newly emerging corporate innovation strategies?

The conference had a high degree of interdisciplinary exchange. We are pleased to see this event serve as the inaugural conference of a new research initiative on digitization and the future of society from a global perspective. JSPS will continue to support such academic symposia that helps strengthen international cooperative networks.