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April 09, 2025
 

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CHATBOTS

The bus stop sign for the Ghibli Museum at Mitaka Station. The viral trend of AI-generated Ghibli-style images reflects both a longing for comfort in uncertain times and the ongoing debate over AI’s impact on art.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 2, 2025
For a brief moment, everything was Ghibli
ChatGPT will make almost anything Ghibli-ish, but it won’t draw Totoro.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 2, 2025
Ghibli effect: ChatGPT usage hits record after rollout of viral feature
The viral trend saw users from across the globe flood social media with images based on the hand-drawn style of the famed Japanese animation outfit.
While AI advisers could improve decision-making by providing useful information, autonomous AI "agents" may erode human agency and exacerbate inequality, potentially leading to more conflict and job displacement.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 31, 2025
From advisers to autonomous 'agents,' how AI could reshape society
While AI could serve as a good adviser to humans — providing useful and reliable information — autonomous AI "agents" could become a problem.
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.
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.
The Chinese embrace of DeepSeek comes as governments from South Korea to Italy remove the artificial intelligence from national app stores, citing privacy concerns.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 25, 2025
DeepSeek rushes to launch new AI model as China goes all in
Deepseek had planned to release R2 in early May but now wants it out as early as possible.
The Grok-3 artificial intelligence chatbot has "more than 10 times” the computing power of its predecessor, billionaire Elon Musk said in a presentation alongside three engineers from xAI, his AI startup, on Monday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 18, 2025
Musk debuts Grok-3 AI chatbot to rival OpenAI and DeepSeek
Grok-3 beats its rivals across math, science and coding benchmarks, the chatbot's developer says.
Screens display web pages of the Chinese artificial intelligence chatbot DeepSeek. South Korean authorities said on Monday that DeepSeek would not be available on local app stores, pending a review of the Chinese AI startup's handling of user data.
WORLD
Feb 17, 2025
Chatbot vs. national security? Why DeepSeek is raising concerns
Governments from Rome to Seoul are cracking down on the chatbot, saying they need to prevent potential leaks of sensitive information.
Monks at the temple of the golden Buddha Dordenma in Thimphu, Bhutan, in 2023
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2025
Japanese-made AI Buddha to make debut in Bhutan
Monks in the country will use the chatbot on a trial basis to further improve its functions and create guidelines on its use.
DeepSeek’s AI breakthrough has shaken assumptions about China’s innovation, highlighted weaknesses in U.S. tech restrictions, and reinforced China’s push for self-sufficiency despite export controls.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 4, 2025
DeepSeek forces a rethink of China’s ability to innovate
The Trump administration hasn’t outlined a policy toward technology flows yet, but it ordered a review of export controls on day one.
Chief among the worries surrounding DeepSeek is the fact that it collects and stores data in servers in China.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 31, 2025
DeepSeek’s AI restricted by ‘hundreds’ of companies in days
Companies have worked to block access due to concerns about potential data leaks to the Chinese government and what they view as weak privacy safeguards.
The Deepseek and Alibaba app icons. Alibaba released a new version of its Qwen 2.5 artificial intelligence model on Wednesday, stating it surpasses the highly acclaimed DeepSeek-V3.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 30, 2025
Alibaba releases AI model it says surpasses DeepSeek-V3
The unusual timing of the release points to the pressure Chinese AI startup DeepSeek's meteoric rise in the past three weeks has placed on domestic competition.
Phishing and its social-engineering cousin "pretexting" together accounted for more than 20% of almost 10,000 data breaches worldwide last year.
WORLD / Society
Jan 30, 2025
Age of deepfakes means internet users must be more alert than ever
AI chatbots powered by large language models save attackers time and allow for more elaborate fake messages.
Chinese artificial intelligence app DeepSeek rocked the tech sector this month with a new AI model that appeared to rival the capabilities of U.S. giants like OpenAI, but at a much lower cost.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 30, 2025
Why blocking China's DeepSeek from using AI made in U.S. may be difficult
DeepSeek this month rocked the technology sector with a new AI model that appeared to rival the capabilities of U.S. giants like OpenAI, but at a much lower cost.
China's DeepSeek carries far-reaching implications for the global tech industry and supply chain.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 27, 2025
Why is the AI world freaking out over China's DeepSeek?
DeepSeek has far-reaching implications for the global tech industry, upending the widespread belief that the future of AI will require ever-increasing amounts of power.
For language learners under 40 in Japan, AI tools such as ChatGPT are now preferred over in-person classes or radio language programs.
JAPAN
Dec 19, 2024
AI services growing in popularity among younger language learners in Japan
The number of people using AI language tools grew by more than 80% in 2024, a recent survey showed.
Asian tech leaders are spearheading AI's shift to robotics, with China, Japan and South Korea leading global innovation in hardware.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 19, 2024
AI robots are coming, and they’ll be made in Asia
Citigroup projects that there would be 1.3 billion AI robots globally by 2035 and 4 billion by 2050, doing everything from household chores to delivering parcels.
"Agent" technology goes further than chatbots, not just performing parlor tricks and spitting out plausible responses to queries but actually doing the kinds of repetitive tasks that today are handled by millions of humans.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 14, 2024
Big Tech's new AI obsession: 'Agents' that do your work for you
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman calls agents "the next giant breakthrough," while Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff says the shift "is really the rise of digital labor.”
Why Japan is running out of rice — and farmers to grow it
An ongoing shortage of rice has resulted in rising prices for Japan's main food staple.
Japan and U.S. appoint tariff negotiators after Ishiba-Trump phone call
Economic revitalization minister Ryosei Akazawa enters the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Japan responds to Trump's tariffs with a polite phone call and request
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba attends a joint press conference with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington on Feb. 7.
Japan to avoid direct confrontation with the U.S. over Trump tariffs
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said Japan does not intend to seek direct confrontation with the U.S. over the newly levied tariffs, during a parliamentary committee session in Tokyo on Monday.
‘Let’s make it practical’: NATO chief eyes greater defense-industrial ties with Japan
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte plans to visit Japan on Tuesday and Wednesday — his first to the Indo-Pacific region since taking office in October, as he seeks to implement lessons from the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Tottori takes a bold leap forward in the arts
The city of Kurayoshi in Tottori Prefecture celebrated the opening of its public art museum with festivities such as a parade that drew 1,000 revelers.
Haruki Murakami TV adaptation revisits 30 years of watershed moments
Though Haruki Murakami's trademark whiff of offbeat existentialism is threaded throughout NHK's "After the Quake," the final episode — conceived as a sequel to the story "Super-Frog Saves Tokyo" — is the most stylized, featuring an anthropomorphic talking frog (voiced by Non) and his erstwhile associate Katagiri (Koichi Sato).
Nintendo to launch the Switch 2 on June 5
The controllers for the Switch 2 will attach to the console magnetically rather than sliding on rails as with the original device.
A new human trafficking trend emerges from Myanmar scam centers
Victims of scam centers who were tricked or trafficked into working in Myanmar gather at a compound inside KK Park, a fraud center on the country's border with Thailand, after a multinational crackdown in February.

Podcast

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

Longform

An ongoing shortage of rice has resulted in rising prices for Japan's main food staple.
Why Japan is running out of rice — and farmers to grow it
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

BOARDING & INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL DAY 2025 (Sunday, April 20)
BOARDING & INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL DAY 2025 (Sunday, April 20)

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