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M.I.T. Deal With Japan Stirs Fear on Competition

M.I.T. Deal With Japan Stirs Fear on Competition
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December 19, 1990, Section A, Page 1Buy Reprints
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The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has agreed to teach Japanese scientists how to replicate a laboratory in which researchers are developing futuristic entertainment and education products, touching off an intense debate over scholarship and high technology.

Under the agreement, the Japanese are about to begin an effort to duplicate the creative atmosphere of M.I.T.'s Media Laboratory, which computer experts say is probably the world's only lab in which young scientists are being encouraged to pursue their most creative ideas in merging computers, television and films.

Critics say the $10 million contract is a crass sale of expertise in one of the few areas of computer science in which the Japanese say they are lacking: the ability to build a creative environment to generate new ideas. The critics also say the agreement does not require the Japanese to publish all the results of their research, as M.I.T. does.

But others defend the agreement, saying it is dangerous even to think of taking a protectionist view toward science. They say the university and the world can only benefit by having a Japanese counterpart to the university's media laboratory. Race for High-Definition TV

The research being conducted in the lab offers America what the experts say is its greatest hope in the race with Japan to develop and market high-definition television. Researchers at the lab have also found ways to send movies over telephone lines, instead of over the airwaves or over cable lines, so that instead of going to a video rental store, people will be able to call a number and have a movie transmitted to their television sets.

The researchers have also developed a technique they call interactive television, which allows viewers to use a computer to tailor television shows to their liking, focusing on one item in a news show or selecting a camera angle for a sports event.

Japanese executives speak of products like these when they say they were motivated to buy American movie studios with a goal of merging the technologies of computers, television and films. Last month the Matsushita Electrical Industrial Company bought MCA, owner of Universal Studios, and last year the Sony Corporation bought Columbia Pictures.

Researchers at the media lab say science cannot be restricted by national boundaries. They say that the more media labs, and the more people thinking of such ideas, the better. But critics say the real question is what, besides money, the university and the United States get out of the deal. 2 Japanese Interests

The agreement is between M.I.T. and two Japanese interests: Nihon University and the Japanese industrialist Chiyoji Misawa, a leading builder who is interested in futuristic homes in which computers will control various functions, including regulating temperature, turning lights on and off and opening blinds to let in the sun.

In the debate in the United States, the opposing positions are represented by Pat Choate, an economist who is concerned by Japan's success in acquiring American products, and Andrew Lippman, the associate director of M.I.T.'s media lab.

"Of course it will hurt us," said Dr. Choate. "This kind of knowledge is a major underpinning of our future."

But Dr. Lippman said he believed that the world and American science would be better off if more scientists learned the M.I.T. style. "Right now, it's unfortunate that the media lab is unique in the breadth and scope of what it's doing," he said. "More media labs can only be better." Questions on Competitiveness

Another critic, Dr. Amar Bose, teaches electrical engineering and computer science at M.I.T. He is also founder and director of the Bose Corporation of Framingham, Mass., which designs and produces high-fidelity equipment. "The Japanese recognize that what they are lacking is in the creative side," he said. "They have been unable to develop that side of their economy and they know their future depends on it. So does ours, by the way. They know exactly what they want and they're prepared to go out and buy it.

"If you ask whether this is going to diminish ultimately the U.S. competitive position, the answer is yes."

Seigi Hinata, a spokesman at the Japanese Consulate in New York, agreed that the Japanese were developing basic research. "Up to now Japan has excelled in applying results of European and U.S. basic research," Mr. Hinata said. "But now we are beginning to put an emphasis on producing world-class research that will break new ground."

While the agreement was actually reached in 1987, it has not been publicized, even within the university. And the Japanese officials involved in the project only recently obtained the building permits needed to start work on the media laboratory in Japan, although a small lab has been in operation so some research techniques could be learned. Details on Contract

M.I.T. officials say the university will get nothing tangible, other than the $10 million, and they acknowledge that the agreement does not require the Japanese to publish all their results. "I don't know if M.I.T. gets anything out of it other than money," said Dr. Kenneth A. Smith, vice president for research at the university.

But Dr. Smith cautioned that he was not certain that a media lab like M.I.T.'s could be transplanted.

Dr. Nicholas Negroponte, founder and director of the media lab, said that under the terms of the agreement he could not release a copy of the contract without permission from the Japanese. But he agreed in a recent interview to discuss the arrangement.

Dr. Negroponte said the Japanese would pay M.I.T. the $10 million over five years. The money will go into M.I.T.'s $1.6 billion endowment, but in an informal arrangement, the money will be used to support the media lab.

So far, as part of the agreement, three Japanese scientists have spent a year each at M.I.T., learning the culture of the media lab and how to run a lab like it. In addition, Dr. Negroponte said, virtually every one of the 19 professors at the M.I.T. lab has gone to Japan and looked in on what he said was the "small prototype" of the lab that was created while the Japanese waited for permission to build the real thing. Future Help From M.I.T.

Two graduates of the M.I.T. media lab were hired this year to help start the Japanese laboratory, which is to be built in Chiba prefecture east of Tokyo. Once the new lab opens, M.I.T. researchers and students will regularly spend time there, the agreement said.

M.I.T.'s Media Laboratory is a fairly new venture, having opened in 1985. Timothy Browne, who had worked for the lab and now manages an interactive television project for McCann-Erickson World Wide, an advertising agency, said the media lab is dissimilar to any Japanese lab. "There are a lot of wild kids who are given a lot of responsibility and authority," he said of the researchers. "Stereos are blaring and there is a lot of laughter. Japanese labs are considerably more serious, and the researchers themselves aren't given that kind of responsibility and authority."

Dr. Negroponte said it costs $10 million a year to operate the media lab and that $9 million of this was provided by the Federal Government and private companies. The Government pays about 30 percent, he said. About 15 percent of the corporate money is provided by Japanese firms under previous agreements, Dr. Negroponte said.

The $10 million that the Japanese agreed to pay under the new contract is enormously important as a source of funds, Dr. Negroponte said. Asked what else is in the arrangement for M.I.T., he replied, "You mean the money isn't enough?"

Some experts say they have mixed feelings about the agreement, adding that their reaction would be determined by what the United States got out of the deal. A Two-Way Flow?

"It's really a hard call," said Dr. Joseph Nye, the director of the Center for International Affairs at Harvard University. "The critical question is whether there is a two-way flow."

But others say that from what they have heard, M.I.T.'s agreement may seriously harm American competitiveness.

"The Japanese are moving toward the year 2000 to have a research and development capacity that is equal to or greater than that of the U.S.," Dr. Choate said. "The Japanese intend to dominate us."

Making their own version of the media lab "is an integral step," he added.

Dr. Choate said that the Japanese arrangement makes him question whether it is wise for industries to invest in M.I.T. "The fact that M.I.T. is peddling off its media lab should be of great concern," he said.

Clyde Prestowitz, president of the Economic Strategies Institute, a research organization in Washington, said: "I can't imagine Japan doing a similar kind of deal. It seems to me that we typically undervalue what we have."

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 1 of the National edition with the headline: M.I.T. Deal With Japan Stirs Fear on Competition. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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