This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jad Tarifi, the founder and CEO of the AI startup Integral AI. The following has been edited for length and clarity. Business Insider has verified his employment and academic history.
When I graduated from the University of Florida with a Ph.D. in AI in 2012, I didn’t see myself starting a company.
My goal, both then and now, is to use AI to positively impact the world. That first led me to Google, where I worked for nearly a decade.
Working at Google was a great experience. Many breakthroughs in the field that we see today, like the transformer, were either invented or developed at Google.
A lot of my management philosophy comes from my experience at Google. At my startup, I try to empower my engineers by leading with compassion and creating a safe environment for them to voice their opinions.
Google is good at generating revenue from advertising and is very much invested in that business model. But if you want to do something different, like build a personal AGI, that might not fit with their advertising model.
It dawned on me that I needed to chart a path to pursue my interest in robotics. A startup would allow me to iterate fast, take risks, and be nimble.
Moving to Japan
In my final year at Google, I persuaded my manager to send me to Google’s Tokyo office. That was in 2020, and I spent a year there before I left to launch Integral AI.
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Why Japan? That goes back to my interest and passion for applying AI to robotics.
I spent the bulk of my career in Silicon Valley, and I saw firsthand that the US is a world leader in AI. The US, however, isn’t as strong in robotics. That’s partly because it has been outsourcing manufacturing to the rest of the world.
Japan, on the other hand, is the world leader in robotics. It makes most of the world’s industrial robots. Going to Japan allowed me to combine the best of AI from Silicon Valley with the best of robotics in Tokyo.
Going to Japan gave me access to the country’s huge robotics ecosystem. There are so many players in robotics, ranging from suppliers to manufacturers to end customers. You need to understand the ecosystem if you want to serve the market effectively.
I was fortunate to spend my final year at Google in Japan. I used it as an opportunity to immerse myself in the language and culture. To become conversant in Japanese, I placed myself in uncomfortable situations where I had to communicate with locals. Today, I feel comfortable talking to people I meet on the street.
After leaving Google, I founded Integral AI in 2021. My company’s goal is to build an AI that can control robots and autonomous vehicles.
Getting the best of both worlds
Running my business in Japan does come with pros and cons.
One thing that took getting used to was Japan’s rigid system of rules and administrative procedures, which can be old-school and inflexible.
For instance, you must use a personal seal, or what the Japanese call a “hanko,” to sign documents.
It’s not just the way documents are handled. It took me three months to open my company’s bank account, despite having a Japanese investor on board. I could have opened a bank account in the US in 30 minutes.
However, I saw these inefficiencies as a small price to pay to access Japan’s robotics market and its many players.
Operating in Japan has given me a deep understanding of the ecosystem and how we should design our products to leverage it.
On a broader level, working in Japan showed me the beauty of taking an iterative approach to building products. In the US, the ethos is to move fast and break things. In Japan, you are forced to think small and take a step-by-step approach to solve problems. This systematic approach to working feels healthier and more sustainable.
If you want to accelerate your tech career, Silicon Valley should still be your primary goal, even though the culture there is more individualistic and work-oriented.
But if you want to live and work in a country that values work and community, then Japan may be the place for you. You can get the best of both worlds by working in a Silicon Valley-style tech company in Japan. This is where you can have your cake and eat it too.
