Tag - ai

 
 

AI

Increased reliance on AI and digital technology is weakening cognitive skills, such as critical thinking and problem-solving, as people depend more on machines for tasks that once required mental effort.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 25, 2025
‘Use it or lose it’ — a grim mantra for the AI age
In sum, “excessive dependence on AI without concurrent cultivation of fundamental cognitive skills may lead to underutilization and subsequent loss of cognitive abilities.”
After falling behind despite helping pioneer the technology, Japan has the foundation to lead in artificial intelligence — if it seizes the moment.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 25, 2025
Japan urgently needs an AI vibe shift
Citizens’ embrace of AI also remains surprisingly low. Just 9% of consumers say they have used generative AI.
San Francisco-based OpenAI sees the new studies as a way to get a better sense of how people interact with, and are affected by, its popular chatbot.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 22, 2025
OpenAI study finds links between ChatGPT use and loneliness
Those who spent more time typing or speaking with ChatGPT each day tended to report higher levels of emotional dependence on the chatbot.
Others in the running to buy TikTok are Microsoft, Oracle and a group that includes Internet personality MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 22, 2025
AI startup Perplexity confirms interest to buy TikTok
Perplexity in a blog post laid out a vision for integrating its AI-powered internet search capabilities with the popular video-snippet sharing app.
Climate change mitigation demands collective action from all levels of society, not just billionaires with private jets, as systemic change is necessary for meaningful progress.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 21, 2025
Billionaire’s private jet angst won’t save the world
Data center emissions in the U.S. already rival those of the domestic airline industry and are growing far quicker.
The AI management shift has been months in the making and predates Apple announcing the Siri delays.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 21, 2025
Apple shuffles AI executive ranks in bid to turn around Siri
The company is undergoing a rare shake-up of its executive ranks, aiming to get its artificial intelligence efforts back on track.
SoftBank Group has agreed to acquire semiconductor designer Ampere Computing.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 20, 2025
SoftBank seals $6.5 billion deal for chip designer Ampere
The move further broadens the Japanese investment firm’s push into artificial intelligence infrastructure.
Google will acquire cloud security platform Wiz for $32 billion, citing the need for greater cybersecurity capacity as artificial intelligence embeds itself in technology infrastructure.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 19, 2025
Google to buy cybersecurity company Wiz for $32 billion
The transaction will test Donald Trump's openness to large takeovers after resistance to such deals by the administration of his predecessor.
Megan Garcia
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Mar 18, 2025
Teen’s suicide turns mother against Google and AI chatbot startup
Megan Garcia says her son would still be alive today if it weren’t for a chatbot urging the 14-year-old to take his own life.
The Intel headquarters in Santa Clara, California
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 18, 2025
Intel's new CEO plots overhaul of manufacturing and AI operations
Intel reported an annual loss of $19 billion in 2024, its first since 1986.
An early pioneer of artificial intelligence is interested in teaching AI models how to efficiently forget.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 15, 2025
AI pioneer wants Europe to forge its own nimbler way forward
Sepp Hochreiter, an early pioneer of the technology, is interested in teaching AI models how to efficiently forget.
Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in Bangkok in August 2023. Thaksin has vowed cheaper power in Thailand to allow the country to emerge as a data center hub.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 15, 2025
Thaksin vows cheaper power to turn Thailand into data center hub
Thailand aims to slash electricity costs by more than 25% by next year to emerge as a hub for data centers and artificial intelligence infrastructure.
Microchips are a major source of "forever chemicals” that are linked to cancer and other health problems.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 14, 2025
As chips race spews ‘forever chemicals,’ startups emerge to destroy them
A wave of companies are offering potential solutions that won’t cut the chemicals out of the supply chain but destroy them.
A sign featuring the logo of Germany's Federal Ministry For Economic Affairs And Climate Action, at the construction site of the Northvolt Drei EV battery gigafactory in Heide, Germany, on Oct. 15, 2024
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 12, 2025
If Europe builds the gigafactories, will an AI industry come?
The hope is that local firms like France's Mistral will use the factories to create AI models that operate in line with EU safety rules.
Chinese leaders attend the second plenary session of the National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing's Great Hall of the People on Saturday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 11, 2025
DeepSeek-fueled AI fever injects new energy into China’s annual meeting
Communist Party cadres from different regions competed to market their locales as China’s next AI hub at the National People’s Congress seven-day gathering.
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends an online Security Council meeting from the Kremlin in Moscow on Friday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 11, 2025
Russian disinformation 'infects' AI chatbots, researchers warn
A well-resourced Moscow-based operation is said to be distorting the output of chatbots by flooding large language models with pro-Kremlin falsehoods.
Artificial intelligence is set to disrupt white-collar jobs, making it crucial for knowledge workers to embrace AI, develop backup plans and adapt to an evolving job market.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 10, 2025
How to hedge against AI stealing your job
"Knowledge workers" need a back-up plan as artificial intelligence keeps getting better.
Students walk through the University of Pennsylvania campus. It has been reported that the U.S. State Department will use artificial intelligence to revoke the visas of foreign students who it perceives as supporters of Palestinian Hamas militants.
WORLD
Mar 7, 2025
Reported U.S. plan to use AI to revoke student visas sparks alarm
Axios reported that a "Catch and Revoke" effort will include AI-assisted reviews of tens of thousands of student visa holders' social media accounts.
Hiromi Okuda’s study abroad experience at the University of Mumbai inspired her to build a career at the intersection of social welfare and IT.
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Mar 7, 2025
Hiromi Okuda: 'Humans and emerging tech should exist symbiotically'
For the past 30 years, Hiromi Okuda has forged a career at the intersection of social welfare and technology.
Globally, women are severely underrepresented among leading roles in cinema, with female directors accounting for just over 10% of the industry in Japan. Achieving gender equality on-set would have far-reaching consequences for the whole of society.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 7, 2025
Without women behind the camera, equality stays out of the frame
Cinema isn't only about what stories are told, but who tells them. Overcoming severe underrepresentation, women are reshaping the film industry and cultural narratives.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.