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December 22, 2024
 

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Alex PIGMAN
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks during the Microsoft Build conference in Seattle on May 21. Altman recently fired off a social media post saying "There is no wall" as fears arise over potential blockages to AI development.
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 18, 2024
Is AI's meteoric rise beginning to slow?
Industry insiders are beginning to acknowledge that large language models aren't scaling endlessly higher at breakneck speed when pumped with more power and data.
Joining the revolution brought by the era-defining release of ChatGPT requires a supply of cash that only tech behemoths like Microsoft can provide.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 29, 2024
AI startups swap independence for Big Tech's deep pockets
In the past few months promising companies have seen founders and key executives quietly exit the stage to join the world's dominant tech companies.
U.S. lawmakers last week overwhelmingly backed a bill to ban TikTok unless Chinese parent company ByteDance divested itself within six months.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 18, 2024
Monsters, asteroids, vampires: AI conspiracies flood TikTok
YouTube tutorials show users how to create "viral conspiracy theory videos" and profit off TikTok's Creativity Program.
Supporters of TikTok watch a feed of the U.S. House vote as they gather outside the Capitol in Washington on Wednesday.
WORLD
Mar 14, 2024
TikTok devotees say platform unfairly targeted for U.S. ban
The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a bill that would force TikTok to divest from its Chinese owner or be banned nationally.
Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, attends a conference in Paris in June of last year.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 10, 2024
Led by Musk, Silicon Valley inches to the right
Musk and other tech mavens are pushing themes cherished by Fox News and far-right movements from a place that electorally remains a liberal stronghold.
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.
The Nvidia headquarters in Santa Clara, California
BUSINESS / Tech
Sep 28, 2023
AI chip crunch: Startups vie for Nvidia's vital component
Generative AI's lifeblood is a book-sized semiconductor known as the graphics processing unit (GPU) — built by one company, Nvidia.
Silicon Valley's AI tycoons believe discussions on AI's current carbon footprint underplay its revolutionary potential.
BUSINESS / Tech
Sep 4, 2023
Tech's carbon footprint: Can AI revolutionize responsibly?
Across the globe, data servers are consuming precious natural resources for the digital world, raising the question: can AI revolutionize responsibly?
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
May 29, 2023
AI-generated misinformation likely to pose hazard in U.S. election campaigns
Technologists warn that bad actors could exploit the technology to sow chaos amid a highly polarized political climate.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 1, 2023
Elon Musk defends paid Twitter as blue tick ultimatum looms
The billionaire defended his controversial pay model for Twitter, claiming that any social media platform that didn't follow suit would fail because they would be swarmed by bots.
Record 78% of people in Japan feel anxious, government survey finds
The public opinion survey on people's lives, conducted by the Cabinet Office, found that 28.1% of respondents think that their standard of living is at a lower-middle level among the general public — the highest percentage to give that response in 35 years.
Police raided suspect's home to arrest him after fatal Kitakyushu stabbing
Broken window glass is seen at Masanori Hirabaru's house in Kitakyushu's Kokuraminami Ward.
Taiwan lawmakers brawl over bills that would 'damage democracy'
Lawmakers from the Democratic Progressive Party and opposition party Kuomintang brawl in parliament in Taipei on Friday.
Ride-hailing restrictions to be eased during 2025 Osaka Expo
A venue for the 2025 Osaka Expo in the city of Osaka
Foxconn's interest in Nissan said to be on hold amid Honda merger talks
Foxconn’s pause in its pursuit of Nissan is the latest development in the unexpected emergence of two suitors for the ailing Japanese carmaker.
Japanese officials inspect Yokota Air Base over PFAS concerns
The Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo in September 2019. An inspection of the base by Japanese government officials on Friday came amid public pressure to investigate suspected links between the use of PFAS-containing firefighting foam by the U.S. base and contamination of soil and groundwater in western Tokyo.
Crime numbers rise in Japan for second straight year
A police officer stands in front of the residence of a man alleged to have stabbed two junior high school students in Kitakyushu.
A year of Oscar wins and a quiet push for diversity
Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Evil Does Not Exist,” released in Japanese theaters in April, sharply dramatizes the clash between rural and urban values. The film won five awards at the 2023 Venice Film Festival, including the second-place Silver Lion prize.
Curiosity didn’t kill the meme: Why cats still rule Japanese YouTube
A screen shot from YouTube user @lagelda shows the simplicity of going viral in Japan in 2024: A cat dancing to EDM in front of a green screen.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Yasuyuki Yoshida stirs a brew in a fermentation tank at his brewery in Hakusan.
The quake that shook Noto's sake brewing tradition
By Alex K.T. Martin

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