ChatGPT VS. The Government of Japan’s Web3 Roadmap

A 21st Century Crypto Mystery

Setting the Stage

We were excited to see that the Government of Japan released a detailed roadmap of their Web3 plans earlier this week, titled Approach to Improving Web3.0 Business Environment From token economies to the foundation of Society5.0. We’re still digesting the whole thing - its pretty long at 76 pages - but wanted to get something over to you, lovely readers, asap.

Previously, we would’ve had to sit down and actually write out thoughts presumably grounded in our experience reading it, but we live in the future now and have robots to do that for us.

So instead of critically engaging with the work, we went to our good friend ChatGPT and asked it for a summary. Or, more specifically, we said, “Give me a lengthy, detailed summary of this entire document,” and linked to the document. And, just like that, good ol’ ChatGPT started churning out sentences.

But that’s not where this story ends. In fact, its where it more or less begins. But to better set the stage, we’ll suggest you pause here and take an old fashioned look through Japan’s web3 roadmap by clicking through the button below. You don’t have to analyze it, but flip through it to get a decent idea of the points it touches upon. Once you’ve done that, then come back to this page and continue reading.

Things Get Weird

OK, so if you’ve done as we requested, you now have a general understanding of what Japan’s going on about with Web3. And, to be honest, we more or less agree with it. The financial side of crypto has dominated the conversation since at least 2016, and that’s unfortunate because it tends to distract from the projects that aren’t immediately profitable, and pushes things in a pump-and-dump direction. Just look at what NFTs became. This roadmap takes a more holistic approach to the entire web3 ecosystem outside of crypto speculation and securities, placing the potential for meaningful development in much closer reach.

And, if you read it, you’d probably understand that. However, if you rely on ChatGPT to tell you what it says, you wouldn’t. You’d instead have read a summary of a February 2017 document titled The Third Industrial Revolution in Japan: Creating a Low-Carbon, Smart Society, which apparently discusses 4 points:

• Energy transformation

• Internet of Things

• Social innovation

• Human resource development

Now, these are all topics that are relevant to Web3 initiatives, and even to what the Government of Japan has proposed in the newly released document. But the summary we received when we submitted the URL of that newly released document to ChatGPT was for another document, one that we still have never seen because ChatGPT only produced a summary of that document and not the document itself. That’s weird.

Without further ado, here’s the summary.

Summary of The Third Industrial Revolution in Japan: Creating a Low-Carbon, Smart Society

"The Third Industrial Revolution in Japan: Creating a Low-Carbon, Smart Society" is a report published by the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) in Japan. The report outlines a comprehensive roadmap for achieving a sustainable and prosperous future for Japan through the adoption of a new industrial paradigm, the Third Industrial Revolution.

The report begins by outlining the historical context of Japan's economic and industrial development, including the challenges faced by the country in recent years, such as an aging population, declining productivity, and the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The authors argue that the Third Industrial Revolution offers a new path forward, one that can help address these challenges while creating new economic opportunities.

The report then provides an overview of the Third Industrial Revolution and its key characteristics, including the use of renewable energy sources, the integration of smart devices and sensors into infrastructure, and the development of new business models that prioritize sustainability. The authors argue that the Third Industrial Revolution represents a fundamental shift in the way that society interacts with energy, technology, and the environment.

The report then discusses the specific policy, technology, and institutional changes needed to achieve the vision of the Third Industrial Revolution. The authors identify four key pillars of this transformation: energy transformation, IoT, social innovation, and human resource development.

The first pillar, energy transformation, involves the adoption of renewable energy sources, energy storage systems, and energy-efficient technologies. The report proposes a number of policies to support this transformation, including feed-in tariffs, net metering, and regulations to ensure the safety and reliability of renewable energy systems.

The second pillar, IoT, involves the integration of smart devices and sensors into a networked system that can optimize energy use and improve the efficiency of infrastructure. The report proposes policies to promote the development and deployment of IoT technologies, including standards and protocols for device interoperability and investment in new infrastructure to support IoT deployment.

The third pillar, social innovation, involves the development of new business models, partnerships, and community-based projects that can support the transition to a low-carbon economy. The report proposes policies to support social innovation, including grants for community-based projects, partnerships between industry and local governments, and support for new business models that prioritize sustainability.

The fourth pillar, human resource development, involves the training and education of a workforce that can support the transition to a low-carbon economy. The report proposes policies to support human resource development, including vocational training programs, subsidies for education and training, and partnerships between industry and educational institutions.

The report also discusses the importance of international cooperation in achieving the vision of the Third Industrial Revolution. The authors argue that Japan can learn from the experiences of other countries that have already undergone similar transformations, such as Germany and Denmark. The report proposes a number of strategies for international cooperation, including research partnerships, technology transfer, and policy exchange.

Finally, the report highlights the importance of monitoring and evaluation in ensuring the success of the Third Industrial Revolution. The authors argue that regular monitoring and evaluation can help identify areas of success and areas where improvements are needed, and can inform future policy and investment decisions.

Overall, the report provides a detailed and comprehensive roadmap for achieving the vision of the Third Industrial Revolution in Japan. The authors argue that a combination of policy, technology, and institutional changes, along with international cooperation and monitoring and evaluation, can create a more sustainable and prosperous future for Japan. While significant challenges remain, the authors are optimistic that Japan can lead the way in this transformative change.

WTF?

This is odd, and we’re still looking into what happened to produce this result because we are extremely curious about this sort of thing. We looked at the metadata with ChatGPT (in order to replicate the circumstances that produced the initial abnormality) and sure enough info on The Third Industrial Revolution in Japan: Creating a Low-Carbon, Smart Society popped up even though this was the link that took us to Approach to Improving Web3.0 Business Environment From token economies to the foundation of Society5.0.

But that info is also somewhat suspicious. We’ve already determined that ChatGPT isn’t going to return a correct summary request, and so we also shouldn’t expect it to provide us with good data regarding its target documents, which means we’ve got 2 explanations for this strange situation: either ChatGPT is mistakenly targeting a different document than the one we intend it to, or its lifting meaning from somewhere in our conversation and just running with it to produce output that fits its expectations.

Which is to say, ChatGPT is reading something from the URL, and we know what it is because we can see it, but we can’t tell why it’s doing what it’s doing. It might be a caching issue, or a folder structure issue, or a copy/paste issue, or something else, we don’t yet know.