Tag - tech

 
 

TECH

Tetsuro Higashi, the chairman of Rapidus, speaks during an interview in Tokyo in February last year.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 10, 2024
Japan earmarks ¥45 billion to fire up chip research at home
The funds are part of a major national push to catch up in semiconductor manufacturing.
The Japanese government forecast that number of digital workers in 2026 will fall short of projected needs by 2.3 million.
EDITORIALS
Feb 9, 2024
Japan struggles with digital transformation
Japan's general tendency toward risk aversion reduces the readiness to adopt new policies, procedures and technologies.
SoftBank Group booked a profit for the December quarter after four straight quarters of losses.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 8, 2024
SoftBank swings to profit lifted by T-Mobile windfall
SoftBank recorded its first profit after four straight quarters of losses, backed by a rebound of the Vision Fund and gains from T-Mobile shares.
People walk past a billboard promoting Prabowo Subianto, Indonesia's defense minister and a presidential candidate, and his running mate, Gibran Rakabuming Raka, who is the eldest son of Indonesian President Joko Widodo and current Surakarta's mayor, in Jakarta on Jan. 12.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / FOCUS
Feb 8, 2024
Generative AI faces major test as Indonesia holds election
Front-runner Prabowo Subianto is using AI tools to create campaign art, track social media sentiment, build interactive chatbots and target voters.
While online influence campaigns are increasingly common as powerful people and governments around the world seek to manipulate public opinion, experts tracking such operations say China is one of the biggest sources of such drives alongside Russia and Iran.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 8, 2024
Chinese firm behind ‘news’ sites pushes pro-Beijing content globally, report says
Spread over websites in 30 countries, the propaganda material is interspersed with news aggregated from local news outlets and Chinese state media.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s new factory in the town of Kikuyo, Kumamoto Prefecture, in May. The firm plans to build a second chip fabrication plant in the prefecture.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 7, 2024
TSMC to build second chipmaking plant in Japan with partners
The facility will be close to the first TSMC plant in the Kumamoto Prefecture town of Kikuyo.
Nintendo has raised its forecast for Switch console sales and its overall operating profit for the year ending in March.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 6, 2024
Nintendo raises sales and profit forecasts after strong holiday earnings
The Kyoto-based firm's shares are at an all-time high this year, with expectations for a next-generation Switch also playing into the lofty valuation.
Like for other generative AI services, the algorithm behind Rufus is a closely held secret and Amazon declined to discuss how it operates.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 6, 2024
Who benefits when shoppers use Amazon's new AI tool?
The tool raises several questions, as Amazon has a history of steering customers toward products that most benefit the company.
Samsung Electronics Chairman Jay Y. Lee arrives at a court in Seoul on Monday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Feb 5, 2024
Samsung chief Jay Y. Lee cleared of charges in 2015 merger case
The sentence prevents a return to jail for Lee who was convicted in 2017 of bribing a friend of former President Park Geun-hye.
The People's Liberation Army's Academy of Military Sciences had used an open-source standard known as RISC-V to reduce malfunctions in chips for cloud computing and smart cars.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Feb 5, 2024
China bets on open-source chips as U.S. export controls mount
RISC-V is free to use and has a simpler outline, often leading to more energy-efficient chips, and users can build atop the framework to suit their needs.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, attends a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington on Wednesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 5, 2024
Zuckerberg’s apology isn’t enough to stop children being harmed
META's CEO apologized to the families of children abused via social media, but real regulation is needed for such harm to be avoided in the first place.
The Fugaku supercomputer at Riken Center for Computational Science in Kobe in June 2020. Many companies leverage its simulation capabilities to streamline processes, saving labor on experiments and calculations crucial for the development of large products.
BUSINESS
Feb 5, 2024
Fugaku supercomputer tops predecessor in corporate usage
While Fugaku has primarily garnered attention for academic applications it has also proved instrumental in product development.
Elon Musk said that the first human patient has received a brain implant from his startup Neuralink, but experts says his statements raised more questions than they answered about the trial.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 5, 2024
Want details on Musk's brain implant trial? You'll have to ask him
Neuralink does not have to divulge even basic details about its trial, including the facility where patients are being implanted.
A customer tries his Vision Pro at the launch of the product at a store in Los Angeles on Friday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 4, 2024
Vision Pro headset is Apple's next Mac and TV combined
The $3,500 headset, which blends 3D content with a view of the outside world, landed in the company’s physical U.S. stores on Friday.
Honda's four-seater CiKoMa EV can travel at speeds of up to 20 kph.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 1, 2024
Honda to test automated EV and logistic robot in Ibaraki Prefecture
The four-seater EV, named CiKoMa, can travel at speeds of up to 20 kph.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg delivers his keynote address at the f8 Developers Conference in San Francisco in 2011.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 1, 2024
Facebook, the social network old-timer, turns 20
"Facebook, when it launched, was revolutionary"
Fujitsu apologized for its role in the wrongful conviction of more than 900 subpostmasters in the U.K. who used its accounting software.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 1, 2024
Fujitsu promises better quality control after U.K. scandal
The Tokyo-based technology company is the subject of an inquiry into a glitch in its Horizon accounting software used by the U.K. Post Office.
IBM offices in Foster City, California
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 30, 2024
IBM managers: Move near an office or leave company
Return-to-office mandates are often seen as fueling attrition
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s new factory in Kikuyo, Kumamoto Prefecture, in May 2023
BUSINESS / Tech / FOCUS
Jan 29, 2024
Can Japan again master semiconductors to relive its glory days?
Competition in the sector is fierce, with many countries pushing to develop their own capabilities and insulate supply chains from geopolitical tensions.
An arm of the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence is tapping companies and colleges to help harness rapidly developing AI technology that could provide an edge against global competitors like China. The challenge is ensuring it doesn’t open a backdoor into the nation’s top secrets or generate fake data.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jan 27, 2024
U.S. spies want AI as tool against China if tech can be trusted
The challenge is ensuring the rapidly developing tech doesn’t open a backdoor into the nation’s top secrets or generate fake data.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?