SoftBank, OpenAI announce JV to offer AI for companies

Japan's SoftBank Group will form a joint venture with US tech giant OpenAI to offer advanced artificial intelligence to businesses, the two companies announced on Monday. "A memorandum of understanding has just been formally signed between Softbank and OpenAI to establish a 50-50 joint venture," SoftBank chief executive Masayoshi Son said as he outlined the services of a new AI product called Cristal. A joint statement by the firms said Japanese tech investor SoftBank would "spend $3 billion US annually to deploy OpenAI's solutions across its group companies". At a meeting of around 500 Japanese businesses, the flamboyant Son -- holding a purple crystal ball -- said Cristal would use AI to provide customised support to companies by crunching system data, reports, emails and meetings in real-time.