Remote-controlled robots to join FamilyMart’s workforce this summer
Created by Tokyo-based robotics firm Telexistence, FamilyMart workers will be able to control the robots from afar to help stock shelves.
Sushi meets AI: Japanese inventor's app scopes out choice tuna cuts
Grading software promises to make life easier for buyers of tuna worldwide.
Historical evidence shows that labor-replacing technological innovation does not lead to long-term changes in employment and unemployment rates in industrial countries.
Japan lags in AI use and internet literacy
The speed of change in the Fourth Industrial Revolution is extremely high, and Japan is falling behind.
Yummy Sake Collective: A new pairing of blind tasting and AI tech
Yummy Sake Collective has a solution for people who struggle to identify what sake they like: An AI-powered app, used in conjunction with a blind tasting, to help determine flavor preferences.
William Gibson's 'Idoru': Tokyo sci-fi becomes full-blown reality
Satirical yet eerily plausible, William Gibson's "Idoru" is a complex sci-fi novel set in post-quake Tokyo that addresses the often negative impacts technology has on our lives.
Otsu turns to AI in bid to help teachers detect signs of school bullying
The city of Otsu will begin next month the country's first attempt to use artificial intelligence to help teachers detect signs of serious school bullying. AI will be used to analyze some 9,000 historical bullying cases reported by local elementary and junior high schools over ...
Meteorological Agency starts development of AI-based system to predict windy events in Japan
The system is also expected to help self-driving cars avoid accidents caused by strong wind, including tornados and downbursts.
In the age of AI, think tanks must evolve
Think tanks must further develop international coordination and work together to make the best use of AI while not allowing the abuse of such technologies.
Artificial intelligence debate raises more questions than answers
"The human race, version 2" — a thought to inspire hope or fear, maybe a little (or a lot) of both. "We today," says Komazawa University economist Tomohiro Inoue, whose thought it is, "will soon be 'the former human race.'" The propulsion forward comes from ...
Facial recognition technology: What would George Orwell say?
This coming June, British author George Orwell's dystopian novel, "Nineteen Eighty-Four," marks the 70th anniversary of its publication. In the United States, Penguin has announced plans for a special 75,000-copy reprint. According to The New York Times, the publisher noted that, sales of the ...
Androids, infertility and ethics collide in Kazufumi Shiraishi's dystopian 'Stand-in Companion'
Kazufumi Shiraishi's novella "Stand-in Companion" offers an interesting male perspective on infertility, plumbing the frustrations of a childless couple and the self-accusation and unspoken blame that can eat away at a relationship.
