SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son Warns AI Cyberattacks Are Like 'Black Ships'
The announcement signals that Japan's largest telecom and tech conglomerate sees AI-enabled cyberattacks as an imminent, qualitatively different threat requiring a continuous, AI-driven defense model rather than one-time fixes.
Reporting from 1 sources: ASCII.jp.
SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son warned Japanese enterprises on June 16 that AI-powered cyberattacks represent a threat comparable to the arrival of 'black ships,' urging urgent preparation. SoftBank and its OpenAI joint venture SB OAI Japan announced a new AI-driven vulnerability diagnosis and patching service called 'Patching as a Service' for critical infrastructure operators.
At a June 16 enterprise event hosted by SoftBank Group and SB OAI Japan, Masayoshi Son compared the coming wave of AI-powered cyberattacks to the 'black ships' that forced Japan's opening in the 19th century. He said previous attacks were 'like humans attacking with bamboo spears' but AI attacks could hit from all angles like 'machine guns,' threatening power, finance, communications, and airports.
SoftBank President Junichi Miyakawa detailed a new mechanism called 'Patching as a Service (PaaS)' that combines OpenAI's models and code analysis to find vulnerabilities, propose corrections, and support patch application. In internal tests on about 700 critical systems, the AI found over 10,000 vulnerability candidates. Miyakawa warned that open AI models for cyberattacks could emerge quickly, spreading attack capabilities before defenses are ready.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.