By Ron Chen, Bureau Chief, Asia
The Sony Group Corporation held an R&D strategy briefing in conjunction with the opening of “Sony Technology Exchange Fair 2022” (STEF 2022), a cross-group technology exchange event.
STEF2022 50th Anniversary Technology That Inspires Emotion
Sony’s Purpose is to “fill the world with emotion, through the power of creativity and technology”. At the R&D strategy briefing, Sony set forth its basic approach to R&D to realize this purpose over the long term and to create technologies that will support Sony’s business.
“STEF 2022” introduced a selection of the latest technologies and related efforts of Sony Group’s diverse businesses and R&D organizations under the theme of “Technology that inspires emotion”. STEF is an annual technology exchange event within the Sony Group, which was initiated in 1973 with the aim of creating new value through the exchange of ideas and exposure to a wide range of technologies developed by each business and R&D organization. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the event, Sony made a portion of the technology exhibition public for the first time.
R&D Strategy Briefing
Hiroaki Kitano, Executive Vice President and CTO, took the stage at the R&D Strategy Briefing and shared his thoughts on Sony Group’s R&D Mission, which is to “Push our civilization forward and make this planet sustainable”. He then defined sensing, AI, digital virtual spaces as key technical domains in R&D that will play a central role in expanding Sony’s business in the future, and explained his aims to transform Sony into an AI and data-driven company through the collaboration between technology in these three domains. To achieve this goal, he also mentioned he will strengthen Sony’s R&D team, which maximizes the potential of each individual member, while at the same time endeavor to make Sony’s R&D team the “the engine of innovation” that constantly innovate the company.
The presentation materials of the R&D strategy briefing are available at the IR site.
For Sony Group to realize its Purpose and make additional strides forward, it will have to, in alignment with its strategic target, continue to create technologies that will inspire a diverse range of people and maximize the potential of various creators. Three core domains in achieving this are sensing, AI, and digital virtual spaces. Sony aims to link these three areas: sensing of real space using Sony’s proprietary technologies, creation of virtual space, and AI that learns from both sensed data and virtual space and provides feedback to sensing and virtual space creation technology. To accelerate the evolution and coordination of these three domains, Sony will also begin developing large-scale AI models to transform Sony into an AI and data-driven company.
To focus on the above technology areas, Sony will strengthen its R&D structure. Based on Sony AI founded in 2020, Sony will establish Sony Research, which will undertake unprecedented disruptive research and lead the development of a large-scale AI model. Technology Infrastructure Center will also be established and will pursue R&D of fundamental technologies for the Sony’s entire R&D organization, while rapidly deploying those technologies in collaboration with our individual business units. In addition to that, Sony will be creating the Technology Promotion and Deployment Division, which is to take R&D findings and a variety of other ideas with limited applicability to existing businesses and work to see them quickly implemented in society and business through collaborative efforts within and outside Sony Group. Lastly, R&D themes within Sony’s R&D center that are specific to each business unit and themes in areas that the business unit hopes to strategically strengthen in the future will be transferred to each business unit to accelerate R&D activities.
