NGK Starts Demonstration Tests in New Application Search Using Original AI

NGK INSULATORS, LTD. (hereinafter “NGK”) based in Nagoya, Japan, and Stockmark Inc. (hereinafter “Stockmark”) based in Minato-ku, Tokyo, have initiated a demonstration test to use artificial intelligence (AI) to improve the precision and speed of searching for new applications for NGK’s products and technologies. The companies aim to accelerate the search for applications and create new businesses promptly by combining NGK’s internal and external documents, including patents and research papers, and the proprietary AI developed by Stockmark.

The AI developed by Stockmark Inc. is a proprietary Japanese Large Language Model (hereinafter “LLM”)* trained with an enormous volume of public information, including the latest patents and research papers, social issues and news. It enables NGK's products and technologies to be accurately and quickly linked to external information. Uses can generate new businesses proposals and go-to-market ideas by entering the name of a product or technology in a dedicated search bar.

Conventionally, searching for new applications of technology and connecting a company's elemental technologies with existing social issues required extensive human analysis of a huge amount of text data. With this initiative, AI takes on the burden of analyzing text data, replacing human effort and significantly reducing the time and labor required. This enables efficient exploration of new market opportunities by leveraging the company’s strengths. NGK plans to conduct over 100 demonstration tests within the year to showcase examples from which they will extract potential new applications.

The NGK Group formulated the NGK Group Vision: Road to 2050, a mid - to long - term vision of the future of 2050, and is committed to New Value 1000, which aims to generate at least 100.0 billion yen in net sales in new business by the milestone year of 2030, while converting the business structure to the carbon neutral and digital society fields. In the future, NGK will focus on development themes for growth while moving forward on creating new products and new businesses.

• *LLM (Large Language Model) : A model that uses AI to analyze large volumes of text data. LLMs are used in AI such as ChatGPT and can perform various processes using natural language with high precision.

Comment from Chiaki Niwa, Executive Vice President Responsible for Digital Transformation and Innovation Dept., NGK

NGK newly established Corporate NV Creation in 2022 to promptly incorporate the needs of markets and people, aiming to realize New Value 1000, which targets generating net sales of 100.0 billion yen in new business by 2030.
To achieve New Value 1000, it is essential to intentionally create new businesses with a “market driven” approach. By combining Stockmark’s LLM and its technology, which can collect information about social issues (needs) in a timely manner, with the diverse information (seeds) held by NGK, we can uncover previously unnoticed new values and use cases for our technology, thereby contributing to the achievement of our goals.

Comment from Tatsu Hayashi, CEO of Stockmark

As AI/LLM technologies continue to evolve, we find ourselves at a pivotal moment in a 30-year cycle. We believe that within the next three years, these technologies will revolutionize how individuals interact with technology and software, as well as the methods by which companies and people create new value.
Our goal is to establish a system that fosters continuous value creation by significantly reducing the time required to search for value by integrating market demands and a company’s seeds through the initiative with NGK, which uses ceramics technology as a foundation to operate a wide range of businesses from energy and environmental protection to digital solutions.

Stockmark Inc.

With the mission of “Reinventing the Mechanism of Value Creation to Advance Humanity”, Stockmark Inc., supports the business creation activities of many companies by utilizing the most advanced natural language processing (“NLP”) technology.

Stockmark uses natural language processing (“NLP”) technology to categorize and reorganize business news from about 35,000 domestic and international sites. The company supports the creation of new value for companies through to services. First, Anews, in which AI delivers information directly related to business operations, thus enhancing a sensitivity to information, and encouraging the conception and development of business ideas within the organization, Second, Astrategy, a market research service in which AI provides insights by structuring the necessary information specifically tailored to the organization and its day-to-day operations.

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