AI Research and Utilization at Asahi Shimbun: Selected as One of the World’s “30 Promising Young Researchers”
The Asahi Shimbun Company Press Release: September 8, 2025 Asahi Shimbun’s Teru Kawabata named one of “30 Promising Young People” in the Global Media Industry Media Research and Development Center Staff Recognized for Initiatives Linking AI Research to Social Implementation Asahi Shimbun Co., Ltd. (President and CEO: Masaru Tsunoda) Media Research and Development Center employee Teru Kawabata was selected for the “30 Under 30 Awards” in the product category on the 5th, announced by the International News Media Association (INMA). The award recognizes 30 outstanding young talents working in news media around the world, and recognized Kawabata’s efforts to apply academic results from AI research to improve the performance of “Typoless,” the company’s in-house proofreading support service. The Asahi Shimbun Company established the Media Research and Development Center in 2021 and continues to drive technological innovation.
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/9214/1953/9214-1953-741a88e265326cab391553b3fefd5d9d-3900×2925.jpg
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/9214/1953/9214-1953-31f0d13ff465bb2566828af1685b172c-147×154.jpg Teru Kawabata, member of the Asahi Shimbun Media Research and Development Center Research on AI reliability and utilizing media expertise in AI Center member Kawabata was born in 1998 and is 27 years old. He majored in natural language processing at graduate school and is conducting research on the accuracy of inferences used by AI to arrive at answers. He has received the Young Researcher Encouragement Award from a domestic academic society. He joined The Asahi Shimbun Company in 2023 and was assigned to the Media Research and Development Center, where he has focused on research on AI reliability and utilizing media expertise in AI. We have also developed a method to quantitatively evaluate risk and automatically increase reliability. Kawabata discovered a phenomenon in which AI generates seemingly correct answers based on erroneous evidence, and developed a system to quantitatively assess this risk. Based on this discovery, he also successfully developed a method for the AI to verify its own answers and automatically increase the reliability of the generated information. These efforts have been accepted by EMNLP, one of the most prestigious international conferences in the field of AI, and have received high academic acclaim. Significantly improves the performance of Asahi’s AI proofreading support service
Furthermore, by utilizing the knowledge gained from this research and the “know-how for writing accurate Japanese” cultivated by the newspaper company over many years, we have significantly improved the performance of the grammatical error correction technology in “Typoless,” an AI proofreading support service developed by The Asahi Shimbun, contributing to improving the quality of the product, which has been adopted by more than 100 companies. This initiative, which promotes both research and social implementation, was highly praised, leading to our winning the Product Category of this year’s “30 Under 30 Awards.” “Supporting the high reliability required by media with technology” Center staff member Kawabata commented as follows: “I am very pleased to receive this award. It is a great encouragement that our efforts to connect research and practice have been recognized. We will continue to strive to support the high level of reliability required of the media with our technology and give back to society through our work.” Click here for the Asahi Shimbun article reporting the award: About the Media Research and Development Center Established in April 2021. Leveraging cutting-edge media technologies such as artificial intelligence and the abundant resources of a newspaper company, including text, photos, and audio, we aim to solve internal and external problems while also conducting research and development of cutting-edge technologies such as natural language processing and image processing. Asahi Shimbun Media Research and Development Center What is INMA The International News Media Association (INA) is an international news media organization headquartered in Dallas, Texas, USA. Its membership includes approximately 23,000 members from over 1,000 news media outlets in approximately 100 countries and regions around the world, and its activities aim to share the latest knowledge in the news media industry. The 30 Under 30 Awards are held annually by the association to spotlight the next generation of news media talent and support their further success.
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/9214/1953/9214-1953-583b08f7e81f2b74692c913e3d885f3f-1276×724.png
