Two major global technology players, Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp. and U.S.-based OpenAI, announced Tuesday the official launch of a new artificial intelligence-powered cybersecurity service designed to counter the rapidly growing threat of sophisticated cyberattacks across Japan, according to joint statements from both firms.
Speaking at the launch event held in Tokyo, SoftBank’s iconic Chief Executive Masayoshi Son framed Japan’s current cybersecurity gaps as an urgent national crisis, noting that modern cyber threats are far more destructive and widespread than previous generations of attacks. He drew a stark comparison between today’s threat landscape and historical risks, describing contemporary cyberattacks as equivalent to a machine gun assault, versus the far less damaging rifle-level attacks of years past.
The new offering, branded as an AI-powered vulnerability patching service, will first target Japan’s 3,000 largest companies that oversee the country’s most critical public and economic infrastructure — including airport operations, national power grids, and nationwide transportation networks, Son confirmed. For Son, the project is more than a commercial venture: “I feel it is our duty,” he stated, repeatedly labeling malicious cyber actors as “the bad guys” that the new service is built to stop.
The service follows a two-step workflow to shore up defenses: first, it runs a comprehensive diagnostic scan to map unaddressed security weaknesses across an organization’s digital systems, then it leverages OpenAI’s advanced technology to analyze vulnerabilities and generate targeted fixes for these security gaps.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who was originally scheduled to appear in person at the Tokyo event, was unable to attend after his daughter was born earlier than expected. Instead of an in-person talk, Altman delivered remarks via a pre-recorded short video, and OpenAI’s Chief Researcher Mark Chen attended the launch on his behalf.
The partnership behind this new service builds on a collaboration the two firms forged last year, when they launched SB OAI Japan, a 50-50 joint venture focused on building and exclusively distributing customized AI solutions for the Japanese domestic market.
While no financial details of the new cybersecurity service rollout were disclosed at Tuesday’s presentation, SoftBank confirmed that all attendees of the Tokyo event are eligible to apply for a complimentary initial vulnerability diagnosis of their organizational systems.
Industry observers note that the widespread adoption of generative AI by both defenders and attackers has reshaped the cybersecurity landscape in recent years: bad actors have used AI to scale up the volume and complexity of their attacks exponentially, forcing security providers to pivot to AI-powered defense tools that can match the speed and sophistication of modern threats. This new SoftBank-OpenAI offering marks one of the most high-profile commercial launches of AI-powered cybersecurity tailored for a national critical infrastructure network to date.