The Black Ships in the Harbor Again

The Growth Zone

The Black Ships in the Harbor Again

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This week, Softbank Group CEO Masayoshi Son stood in a Tokyo hotel ballroom and told Japan’s top executives that AI is coming for them. He invoked the Black Ships from Japanese history — U.S. Navy Commodore Matthew Perry’s arrival in Japan in 1853 with a squadron of four gunships — as a metaphor for a technologically superior external force arriving on your shores when you are not ready.

It’s a powerful metaphor. Son was not wrong to use it.

But Son is only telling you half the story. The half he left out is far more important — and far more uncomfortable…