Tag - ai

 
Menu
Search
 
July 10, 2026
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

AI

A Paraguayan woman whose relative was detained by federal agents scuffles with officers in the halls of immigration court in New York in July.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 26, 2025
Trump and the end of American hegemony
His unlawful policies following his return to the White House have already upended the postwar era of globalization.
As AI gains autonomy, its potential for unpredictable actions and the pursuit of self-preservation poses serious risks to human life, democracy and global security.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 24, 2025
AI agents threaten free societies
That is precisely why AI agents pose risks to democracy. Systems that are trained to reason and act without human interference cannot always be trusted to adhere to human commands.
Electrical infrastructure for servers at Meta’s data center in Eagle Mountain, Utah. Data centers can use as much electricity as a small city, straining local power grids.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 24, 2025
The Pentagon and AI giants have a weakness. Both need China’s batteries, badly.
Long a problem for industries such as auto manufacturing, Chinese battery dominance is now being seen as a national security threat.
A research group led by Kyoto University has developed a Christian bot to help broaden access to Christianity in Japan.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Dec 24, 2025
After developing a Buddhist bot, Kyoto University develops Christian bot
Initially, its use will be limited to “believers under clergy guidance or by the general public within church settings.”
Japan hopes the upcoming visit of United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan will "deepen friendly and cooperative relations in a broad range of areas," Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 23, 2025
UAE president to visit Japan for the first time in 36 years
The United Arab Emirates leader will meet with Emperor Naruhito and attend a state banquet at the Imperial Palace, and he is to hold talks with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.
While China has made rapid advances in artificial intelligence, its structural constraints remain significant.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 23, 2025
Why China can’t win the AI-led industrial revolution
No industrial revolution has ever emerged outside advanced democratic capitalism, and that is no accident.
Hisashi Matsumoto, minister in charge of cybersecurity, holds a news conference in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 23, 2025
Japanese government adopts new cybersecurity strategy
The new system will enable the police, the Defense Ministry and the Self-Defense Forces to work together in neutralizing critical attacks.
U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell looks on as U.S. President Donald Trump holds a document during a tour of the Federal Reserve Board building in Washington in July.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 23, 2025
Will the U.S. Fed be allowed to do its job?
Will the central bank maintain enough autonomy and credibility to promote financial stability and employment if politics, debt and market exuberance head the other way?
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi (center) attending a Cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister's Office on Tuesday.
JAPAN
Dec 23, 2025
Japanese government adopts first basic plan on AI
The plan stipulates that Japan will “create reliable AI” while balancing technological innovation and risk management, with an aim to offer the best environment for AI development.
Ting Cai, head of Rakuten Group’s artificial intelligence team, has the task of creating AI systems that would augment the company’s many businesses at a minimal cost.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 23, 2025
Rakuten AI boss diverges from Big Tech in prioritizing low cost
The Tokyo-based company is expanding its AI team under the stewardship of a Google veteran and building models with a focus on cost efficiency.
Two blockbuster trading debuts in Shanghai have signaled insatiable demand for future national champions in China's chip sector.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 22, 2025
Chinese chipmakers race to IPO market after back-to-back listings surge
The surge in listings is coming on the back of two blockbuster trading debuts in Shanghai.
A worker installs battery packs into an electric vehicle chassis at the vehicle assembly lines of Geely Automobile's Zeekr Factory in Ningbo, China, in March. Chinese firms are on track for a 75% jump this year in global shipments of lithium-ion battery cells for energy storage, according to one estimate.
BUSINESS / Tech / ANALYSIS
Dec 22, 2025
China’s power reforms and global data center buildout usher in battery boom
Chinese firms have exported more than $65 billion worth of storage and electric-vehicle batteries this year, cementing their dominance in the sector.
SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son attends an event to pitch AI for businesses in Tokyo in February.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 20, 2025
SoftBank races to fulfill $22.5 billion funding pledge to OpenAI by year-end
The “all-in” bet on OpenAI is among the biggest yet by SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, as he seeks to improve his firm’s position in the race for artificial intelligence.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman at a data center in Abilene, Texas, in September. During a recent lunch with media editors in New York, Altman said developing AI systems for companies could be a $100 billion market.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 19, 2025
Business leaders agree AI is the future. They just wish it worked right now.
So far, the vast majority of businesses are struggling to realize a meaningful return on their artificial intelligence investments.
Psoriasis is a chronic autoimmune disorder that causes rashes marked by itchy, scaly rashes and afflicts more than 125 million people worldwide.
JAPAN
Dec 18, 2025
Takeda’s psoriasis pill developed with AI assistance succeeds in trials
If approved, zasocitinib would stand out as one of the first drugs discovered with the help of artificial intelligence.
Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group President Toru Nakashima speaks during an interview on Dec. 8 in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 18, 2025
Sumitomo Mitsui may hit ¥2 trillion net profit earlier than expected
The financial giant expects a record net profit of ¥1.5 trillion for fiscal 2025 ending in March 2026.
The Rapidus booth at the Semicon Japan exhibition in Tokyo on Wednesday. The exhibition is scheduled to continue through Friday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 18, 2025
Rapidus announces new artificial intelligence design tools
The chipmaker, which already uses artificial intelligence in certain aspects of its business, expects its integration to enable it to cut design time and cost.
A Huawei store in Shenzhen. While the project to build an extreme ultraviolet lithography machines (EUVs) to produce cutting-edge semiconductor chips is run by the Chinese government, Huawei is involved in every step of the supply chain.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 18, 2025
How China built its ‘Manhattan Project’ to rival the West in AI chips
Ex-engineers from ASML reverse-engineered its extreme ultraviolet lithography machines and built a prototype using parts from older ASML machines on the secondary market.
Generative AI models are trained on publicly accessible creative content yet offer little to the artists, musicians, coders and others who produce it.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 18, 2025
AI thrives on unpaid creative labor
Generative AI models are trained on publicly accessible creative content yet offer little to the artists, musicians, coders and others who produce it.
The National Police Agency plans to warn against the obscene use of AI at delinquency-prevention lectures at schools and other events.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 18, 2025
Over half of deepfakes of underage victims made by schoolmates, Japanese police say
The National Police Agency for the first time has released information on minors who became victims of sexual deepfakes, or obscene fake images created using generative AI.
Japanese payment processor’s collapse hits banks and restaurants
Zentoshin served around 200,000 shops, many of which rely on early payments to maintain cash flow, raising concerns over their financial stability following the disruption.
Japan needs caregivers. Young Indians are answering the call.
Young people in India's northeast are increasingly studying Japanese in hopes of building new lives and careers in Japan.
Trump says ‘Japan’ instead of Iran at meeting in Ankara
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at a news conference during a NATO leaders' summit in Ankara on Wednesday.
Wakatakakage injury casts pall over July meet, but potential new stars loom
Nicholas Tarasenko trains at Minato stable in August 2024.
Osaka trumps Tokyo as both ranked among world’s top 10 most livable cities
Osaka’s infrastructure earned higher marks than Tokyo’s in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s latest Global Liveability Index.
‘Princess Mononoke’ comes alive in Super Kabuki staging
The “Princess Mononoke” adaptation was created under Shochiku’s Super Kabuki initiative, a modern form of kabuki with more technology in staging and open to pop culture collaborations.
The beating heart inside ‘Human Vapor’
Different forms of love and connection form the emotional backbone of Netflix’s “Human Vapor,” says actor Shun Oguri, who plays troubled detective Kenji Okamoto.
Japan bets on character IP to drive global growth
Born on social media platforms in 2022, Opanchu Usagi has become a major hit, especially among Generation Z.
Filmmaker explores history of discrimination against foreign nationals in Japan
Takashi Nishihara, the director of "Now and Then," in Tokyo on Wednesday. The director has spent 10 years traversing politically charged terrain while exploring youth-driven grassroots political movements that scrutinize the status quo.
Okinawa’s prized seaweed under threat as oceans warm
Local harvesters gather <i>mozuku</i> during low tide at Hyakuna Beach in the city of Nanjo, Okinawa Prefecture. As the planet warms, rising ocean temperatures are placing increasing pressure on the seaweed industry.

Podcast

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

Longform

The Terasaka Rice Terraces are seen with Mount Buko in the background.
What Yokoze can teach Japan about rural revival
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Destination Restaurants 2026 award ceremony report
Destination Restaurants 2026 award ceremony report

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER