Tag - tech

 
 

TECH

People stand in front of a temporarily closed McDonald's in Tokyo's Shimbashi district on Friday as the chain experienced widespread tech issues.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 15, 2024
McDonald's suffers widespread tech outage in Japan and abroad
Many McDonald's stores in Japan stopped taking in-person and mobile customer orders because of the system disruption.
Makoto Uchida (left), president and CEO of Nissan, and Honda President Toshihiro Mibe give a joint news conference in Tokyo on Friday to announce a new strategic partnership in electric vehicles.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 15, 2024
Nissan and Honda to explore electric vehicle partnership
Analysts said the move was aimed at catching up with Chinese rivals who have stolen a march in EVs while Japanese firms have lost ground.
Residents remove snow from rooftops together with workers from a snow removal company in Joetsu, Niigata Prefecture, in January 2021. In fiscal 2022, 49 people in Japan died during activities related to the clearing of snow. Of these, 39 people — or roughly 80% — were age 65 or older.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 15, 2024
Land ministry goes digital to prevent snow-clearing accidents
The system is aimed at assessing the risks associated with snow removal at individual houses to avert mishaps, particularly ones involving the elderly.
A student at Hanoi University of Science and Technology looking at a printed circuit board in the school's lab in Hanoi.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Mar 15, 2024
The Gen-Z students at the heart of Vietnam's chip plans
Long viewed as a low-cost destination to make clothes, shoes and furniture, the country is now eyeing a rapid climb up the global supply chain.
The massive Gemini fiasco unveils critical questions about artificial intelligence's role and accountability in decision-making.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 15, 2024
Google’s bad Gemini rollout did the world a favor
Part of the difficulty in grappling with AI’s full implications is the huge effort that has gone into devising models that express themselves like humans.
NEC computers at an electronics store in Tokyo. Founded in 1899, NEC focuses on information technology and network communications, biometric recognition, the internet of things and artificial intelligence technologies, according to its website.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 14, 2024
Japan’s NEC weighing $500 million data center sale, sources say
The Tokyo-traded company is looking to hire financial advisers to help prepare a potential sale of the business.
The number of elementary school children who became victims of crimes through social media totaled a record 139 last year in Japan, National Police Agency data showed Thursday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 14, 2024
Child victims of social media-related crimes on the rise in Japan
The number of victims has grown fivefold in the past decade.
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.
Supporters of TikTok gather outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 14, 2024
U.S. House passes bill to force ByteDance to divest TikTok or face ban
The fate of TikTok, used by about 170 million Americans, has become a major issue in Washington.
A TikTok advertisement at a Metro station in Arlington, Virginia
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 12, 2024
TikTok divestment bill moves ahead in U.S. as key Republican wavers
The legislation would block app stores and service providers from offering TikTok unless its Chinese parent ByteDance sells it within six months.
Left: A man protesting the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games clashes with police on Aug. 8, 2021. Right: An AI-generated version of the photo to the left is included to show the difference between real and fake images in news reporting.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 11, 2024
Stranger than fiction: How AI threatens photojournalism
AI images will increasingly replace photos of real events in news reporting, posing an existential threat to photojournalism's accuracy and integrity.
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.
Lauded in China as a major leap in indigenous semiconductor fabrication, last year’s SMIC-made processor powered Huawei’s Mate 60 Pro and a wave of patriotic smartphone-buying in the Asian country.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 9, 2024
Huawei chip breakthrough used tech from two U.S. gear suppliers
The report suggests that China still cannot entirely replace certain foreign components and equipment required for cutting-edge products.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman attends a session of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 18.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 9, 2024
OpenAI’s Sam Altman returns to board after probe clears him
Altman was cleared of any wrongdoing that would have mandated being fired, according to a report based on a monthslong investigation.
University students participate in a job hunting seminar in Yokohama on March 1. Japan is ranked last among 38 countries in the OECD for its proportion of female graduates in STEM fields.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 8, 2024
More Japanese universities adding female admission quotas for STEM fields
The trend comes amid concerns over the nation's low level of female participation in fields related to science, technology, engineering and math.
An event for female coders in New York in 2013. Women’s full participation is key to ensure technologies like AI help bridge the gender gap.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 7, 2024
Now is our chance to govern AI for women’s empowerment
The pace of AI development may seem relentless, but there's still time to create safeguards to ensure that innovation doesn't perpetuate gender inequality.
A chip taken from a smartphone. The U.S. is urging the Netherlands to stop ASML from servicing and repairing sensitive chipmaking equipment that Chinese clients purchased before limits on sales of those devices were put into place this year.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 7, 2024
U.S. urges allies to squeeze China further on chip technology
Washington's latest push is partly aimed at plugging holes in export controls it has levied over the past two years.
An unmanned robot navigates across a street during a demonstration of Uber Eats' robot delivery service in Tokyo on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 6, 2024
Uber Eats Japan begins deliveries with self-driving robots
The company has rolled out the service in Tokyo's Nihonbashi area and plans to introduce it in other places as well.
Bitcoin showed its boom-or-bust character Tuesday with volatile price swings.
BUSINESS / Markets
Mar 6, 2024
Record surge marks new revival for Bitcoin
The cryptocurrency has experienced a breathtaking rebound this year amid strong demand from new U.S. exchange-traded funds.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, whose company launched a pair of smart glasses, on stage at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, California, in September.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 22, 2023
Do you want Meta snooping in your closet with AI wearables?
AI wearable devices represent yet another intrusion into our privacy, allowing tech companies to learn even more about who we are — and what we might buy.

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