Tag - tech

 
 

TECH

Funding for AI companies has outpaced every other category of tech.
BUSINESS / Tech
Oct 18, 2023
AI funding soars to $17.9 billion while rest of tech slumps
Multibillion-dollar investments in artificial intelligence startups have become almost commonplace in Silicon Valley.
Hiroshi Mikitani, chairman and CEO of Rakuten Group, speaks during a news conference in Tokyo in May.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 17, 2023
Rakuten rally from record lows clouded by looming bond deadlines
The most pressing task now for Rakuten is to raise funds for a wall of more than $5 billion of bonds due in the next two years.
Kiva robots move inventory at an Amazon fulfilment center in Tracy, California.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 13, 2023
Amazon strategy could unlock $100 billion in revenue
Supply Chain by Amazon is the latest part of its drive to become a leading logistics company.
BUSINESS
Oct 11, 2023
Disruption of Japan's payments clearing network continues
The issue affecting 11 lenders, including MUFG Bank, has disrupted at least 1.4 million transactions.
Israeli flags flutter at Ofer Park in Petah Tikva, Israel.
BUSINESS / Tech / FOCUS
Oct 11, 2023
War threatens funding recovery in Israel's vital tech industry
A global slowdown and the Israeli government's divisive judicial reforms had prompted a sharp drop in funding earlier this year.
Alma Zadic, Austria's justice minister, during an interview in Vienna on Sept. 26
WORLD / Politics
Oct 11, 2023
In Europe's politics, disinformation and hate pose growing threat
Austrian Justice Minister Alma Zadic believes public institutions simply don’t have the resources to match the output of bad actors.
Hackers have attacked the Philippines’ state health insurer, which didn’t have cyber protection software, leaving the data of millions of the country's citizens vulnerable.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 10, 2023
Hacked Philippine health insurer had no cyber protection software
The lapse, partly caused by a change in procurement processes, adds to a series of attacks on Philippine government agencies.
An online banking system used by 11 banks including MUFG Bank and Resona Bank has been disrupted by a glitch, impacting transfers, the Japanese Bankers Association has said.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 10, 2023
Glitch at Japan's clearing system prevents transfers at 11 banks
It's not clear when it will be possible to restore the system, the Japanese Bankers Association has said.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 9, 2023
G7 to draw up AI code of conduct this autumn: Kishida
Part of the plan will deal with battling disinformation by establishing systems to verify who has created content using AI.
Arm CEO Rene Haas participates in the opening bell ceremony at the Nasdaq exchange in New York on Sept. 14 as the chip design firm holds an initial public offering.
BUSINESS / Markets
Oct 6, 2023
SoftBank’s Arm faces Wall Street scrutiny after massive IPO
Arm Holdings raised $4.87 billion last month in the largest IPO on a U.S. exchange since November 2021.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 6, 2023
ChatGPT-owner OpenAI is exploring making its own AI chips: sources
Obstacles include a shortage of the advanced processors and the 'eye-watering' costs associated with running the hardware.
The Pentagon building in Arlington, Virginia
WORLD / Politics
Oct 6, 2023
Pentagon developing AI to aid Indo-Pacific and other commands
Several AI platforms under development may help connect commanders and their forces and increase the volume of data they can analyze at one time.
A specialist removes a Kirin 9000s chip fabricated in China by Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. from a Huawei Mate X5 foldable smartphone in Ottawa on Sept. 19.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 5, 2023
Taiwan to probe suppliers helping Huawei with China chip plants
A news report this week identified four firms working on chip plants backed by Huawei in China.
The PayPay app now seeks to keep its pace of double-digit growth with help from other SoftBank portfolio companies.
BUSINESS / Tech
Oct 5, 2023
SoftBank’s PayPay app showcases Masayoshi Son’s clout in Japan
Seen to be next in SoftBank’s initial public offering pipeline, the startup now holds two-thirds’ share in QR-code payments in Japan.
Generative AI will change work for young professionals, but their reasoning skills will still be needed.
COMMENTARY
Oct 5, 2023
Is ChatGPT coming for entry-level jobs?
If entry-level workers get that much faster and better, won’t companies be able to get by with fewer of them? Maybe.
A woman walks past a market in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon. Lebanon is one of nine Arab nations using an algorithm-powered poverty assessment formula funded by the World Bank that ranks welfare applicants according to dozens of different data points.
WORLD / Society
Oct 5, 2023
In Middle East, poor excluded from welfare by 'faulty' algorithms
Around the world, 40 countries use an algorithm-powered poverty assessment formula funded by the World Bank to rank welfare applicants.
Masayoshi Son, chairman and chief executive officer of SoftBank Group, speaks during the SoftBank World event in Tokyo on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 4, 2023
SoftBank’s Son tells Japan: Adopt AI or get left behind again
Japan, which largely missed the initial wave of growth from the internet, can’t afford to lose another three decades, SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son said.
Demonstrators hold signs during a protest against COVID-19 measures Munich in 2022.
WORLD / Society
Oct 4, 2023
AI 'supercharges' online disinformation and censorship, report warns
Internet freedom declined for the 13th straight year, with China, Myanmar and Iran having the worst conditions of the 70 countries surveyed.
Chinese battery manufacturer Contemporary Amperex Technology displays its EVOGO battery swap solution at the Auto Shanghai show in April. There are concerns that the company is trying to team up with a U.S. firm to avoid U.S. sanctions.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 4, 2023
Deceptive Chinese strategies that challenge U.S. economic statecraft
The practice by Chinese businesses of using third countries to circumvent tariffs is raising concerns.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, on Feb. 15.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 3, 2023
EU seeks to protect sensitive tech from Chinese buyers
Brussels has stepped up its efforts to curtail critical trade with China.

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