Tag - tech

 
 

TECH

A man sings for customers touring the Erhai lake on a sightseeing bus in Dali, in China's Yunnan province.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Nov 27, 2023
Chasing a different dream, China's tech nomads head for the hills
In the mountain town of Dali, former city-dwellers in search of a space for open discussion and exchange of ideas in authoritarian China find refuge.
More than a dozen countries have announced what has been described as the first detailed international agreement on 'secure by design' AI protocol.
WORLD / Society
Nov 27, 2023
U.S., Britain and others ink deal to make AI 'secure by design'
The agreement focuses on thwarting hackers and releasing new systems only after appropriate security testing.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman welcomes Chinese President Xi Jinping in Riyadh on Dec. 8, 2022.
BUSINESS
Nov 25, 2023
Mideast wealth funds draw greater U.S. scrutiny over China ties
A U.S. committee is reviewing several multibillion dollar deals this year on concerns they could pose national security risks.
The Diet building in Tokyo. Japan is not considering penalties for noncompliant businesses in its planned guidelines on the development and use of generative artificial intelligence.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 24, 2023
Japan's generative AI guidelines to carry no penalties
The government aims to accelerate the development and use of generative AI under the guidelines that it expects to compile later this year.
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, speaks during WSJ Tech Live Conference in Laguna Beach, California on Oct. 17.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 23, 2023
OpenAI researchers spoke of risky discovery before CEO ouster
The previously unreported letter and AI algorithm were key developments before the board's ouster of Sam Altman.
Microsoft's artificial intelligence prospects just got a boost from Sam Altman's return to his CEO role at OpenAI.
COMMENTARY
Nov 23, 2023
Altman’s comeback is a strategic triumph for Microsoft
Sam Altman's termination and swift rehiring will shift the dynamics at OpenAI.
Sam Altman was reinstated as OpenAI CEO less than five days after his ouster.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 23, 2023
Altman is back at OpenAI, but questions remain over firing
One of the big issue for the organization is to what extent Altman can continue pursuing outside ventures.
Shareholders arrive to attend Toshiba's extraordinary shareholders meeting in Tokyo on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 22, 2023
Toshiba shareholders approve plan to go private next month
The decision will allow a consortium led by JIP to buy all of Toshiba's remaining shares, marking the end of its decadeslong history as a public firm.
Sam Altman, chief executive of OpenAI
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 22, 2023
OpenAI restores Sam Altman as CEO after his tumultuous ouster
In addition to Altman's return, the company agreed to partly reconstitute the board of directors that dismissed him.
Up until very recently, the business of packaging semiconductors — encasing chips in materials that both protect them and connect them to the electronic device they’re part of — was, at best, an afterthought for the industry.
WORLD / Politics
Nov 22, 2023
A new front is opening up in the U.S.-China conflict over chips
The process of packaging semiconductors is increasingly seen as the "secret sauce" — a path toward achieving higher performance.
A redacted online resume of a North Korean IT worker is shown in this screenshot obtained on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Nov 21, 2023
North Koreans use fake names to land remote IT work for cash
Landing a job outside North Korea to secretly earn hard currency for the country demands highly-developed strategies to convince Western firms.
Steve Jobs, Apple's former chief executive, speaks at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco on June 6, 2011. Sam Altman, the most prominent promoter of artificial intelligence, learned that it’s hard to be a visionary founder like the Apple legend.
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 21, 2023
The long shadow of Steve Jobs looms over the turmoil at OpenAI
The sudden firing and bid to reinstate OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has deepened the parallels to Jobs, who was marginalized by the board of Apple in 1985.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 21, 2023
Japan joint fighter development group planned for fiscal '24
The 'control tower' will oversee the countries’ requirements for the joint development of the fighter by 2035.
By Monday, OpenAI's board were overseeing a company in name only, with virtually the whole staff committed to a pledge of seeing them go or quitting the firm for fired former CEO Sam Altman's project at Microsoft.
BUSINESS / Tech / FOCUS
Nov 21, 2023
AI doomsayers blamed in OpenAI's undoing
Harsh critics see a deeply troubled startup that fell victim to the pearl-clutching of an incompetent board that was divorced from reality.
OpenAI said it fired chairman Sam Altman after it concluded that he was not candid with the company's board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 21, 2023
Profit, not progress, animates the tech world
Reliable sources said Altman's firing came amid difference in views about the speed at which OpenAI should push its artificial intelligence.
An Omron X-ray scanner VT-X750 at the company’s Ayabe Factory in Kyoto
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 21, 2023
X-rays are becoming an essential health check-up in chipmaking
Omron, a Japanese provider of health care equipment and factory automation, is setting its sights on the lucrative chipmaking gear market to fuel future growth.
Sam Altman, then-CEO of OpenAI, attends the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO summit in San Francisco on Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 20, 2023
The AI safety debate after OpenAI CEO's ouster
It's important to align technology with human interests as AI systems are more likely to lower than raise existential risks.
People use smartphones on the street in Tokyo in January 2019.
BUSINESS / Companies / FOCUS
Nov 20, 2023
The NTT Law — a guard against monopoly, or barrier to innovation?
Some say the law regulating the telecom giant stops it from competing against the likes of Google, but others say it contains vital market protections.
An Apple Store in Shanghai in September
BUSINESS / Tech / FOCUS
Nov 19, 2023
Asian regulators turn focus to Big Tech
Across the region, there are indications that Big Tech may soon have to comply with standards that could become international benchmarks.
Eom Dong-hwan, South Korea's minister for its defense acquisition program and administration, speaks at a ceremony marking Poland's receiving of its first delivery of South Korean K2 Black Panther tanks and K9 self-propelled howitzers in Gdynia, Poland, in December 2022.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 19, 2023
South Korea’s defense ambitions can be met by tech
Decades of facing down North Korea has forced Seoul to slowly build its own arms-producing capabilities instead of relying heavily on the U.S.

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past