Asian game developers use AI to breathe new life into characters
KIM JAEWON and WATARU SUZUKI
SEOUL/SHANGHAI -- Video game developers in Asia are racing to apply artificial intelligence technologies to their characters to give users more intuitive interactions and immersive experiences.
Krafton of South Korea is working with U.S. giants like Nvidia and OpenAI, while Chinese players including Novaserene Entertainment and NetEase are powered by DeepSeek, which surprised the world with its advanced yet affordable large language model early this year.
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The Mainichi
6 hours ago
- The Mainichi
H.K.'s tribute museum to Bruce Lee closes amid financial strain
HONG KONG (Kyodo) -- A Hong Kong museum dedicated to martial arts legend Bruce Lee set up by his fans shut its doors earlier this week, citing financial difficulties. Considered a must-see by Lee's overseas admirers visiting the territory, the Bruce Lee Club had put on display items from its collection of over 2,000 artifacts, including sculptures, decades-old magazines and precious film stills from the late star's early career. But the club earlier said on Facebook that accumulated expenses had forced them to "rethink how to most effectively utilize our resources to sustain the flame of Bruce Lee's spirit." The club's operators had expected a recovery after revenue was hit during the COVID-19 pandemic, but "reality fell short," the Facebook post said. It is not known whether the museum will reopen. The fan club was founded by Lee's family to "share our knowledge and closest memories" of the late superstar, who died in July 1973 at the age of 32. The itinerant archive first opened in a different location in Hong Kong in 2000, before reopening in 2019 after a years-long hiatus. A Hong Kong-American, Lee is known for bringing Chinese martial arts, or kung fu, to Hollywood, and for developing a new school known as Jeet Kune Do. In 2019, pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong were seen following the advice of "Be water, my friend" from the 1971 TV drama series Longstreet featuring Lee as a reminder to stay flexible and constantly shift their tactics in the face of a police crackdown. The museum's last day Tuesday attracted scores of visitors, including Andy Tong, 46, a Jeet Kune Do instructor, and his son Andre, 13, who hailed Lee as a "god." "Things related to him or his deeds in Hong Kong are getting harder and harder to come by," Tong said.
Kyodo News
9 hours ago
- Kyodo News
H.K.'s tribute museum to Bruce Lee closes amid financial strain
HONG KONG - A Hong Kong museum dedicated to martial arts legend Bruce Lee set up by his fans shut its doors earlier this week, citing financial difficulties. Considered a must-see by Lee's overseas admirers visiting the territory, the Bruce Lee Club had put on display items from its collection of over 2,000 artifacts, including sculptures, decades-old magazines and precious film stills from the late star's early career. But the club earlier said on Facebook that accumulated expenses had forced them to "rethink how to most effectively utilize our resources to sustain the flame of Bruce Lee's spirit." The club's operators had expected a recovery after revenue was hit during the COVID-19 pandemic, but "reality fell short," the Facebook post said. It is not known whether the museum will reopen. The fan club was founded by Lee's family to "share our knowledge and closest memories" of the late superstar, who died in July 1973 at the age of 32. The itinerant archive first opened in a different location in Hong Kong in 2000, before reopening in 2019 after a years-long hiatus. A Hong Kong-American, Lee is known for bringing Chinese martial arts, or kung fu, to Hollywood, and for developing a new school known as Jeet Kune Do. In 2019, pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong were seen following the advice of "Be water, my friend" from the 1971 TV drama series Longstreet featuring Lee as a reminder to stay flexible and constantly shift their tactics in the face of a police crackdown. The museum's last day Tuesday attracted scores of visitors, including Andy Tong, 46, a Jeet Kune Do instructor, and his son Andre, 13, who hailed Lee as a "god." "Things related to him or his deeds in Hong Kong are getting harder and harder to come by," Tong said.
Nikkei Asia
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Looking back at the six years since Huawei was added to the U.S. Entity List, it's remarkable how much the global supply chain has shifted and how rapidly China's localization drive has taken off. The launch of that feature was not as smooth as we had hoped. It coincided with breaking news that Nissan and Honda were in merger talks, and faced a technical glitch that prevented our graphics from displaying properly for the first 50 hours the story was up. But once that was resolved, we received great feedback from the industry for the depth and detail of our reporting. The third story in the package looked at how China built a competitive advanced display industry previously dominated by Samsung. There is a saying in Taiwan that goes, "Eat sugarcane from the bottom up," which means each bite becomes sweeter than the last. And another familiar line sums up my feelings: "Every cloud has a silver lining." I want to express my deep gratitude to our art team, led by MinJung Kim and Michael Tsang, for transforming our raw research and reporting into clear and powerful graphics that our readers consistently find valuable. Special thanks also to Katherine Creel, our tech editor, and the entire Nikkei Asia editorial team for their endless support and collaboration in making these projects possible. Hong Kong has always brought back fond memories. I hadn't been back to the city since 2019, before COVID, and in some ways it felt like stepping into a time capsule, especially in terms of digital tech. Most taxis, for example, still only take cash -- no Apple Pay or credit cards. I was lucky to find some leftover Hong Kong dollars in an old wallet before the trip. After the awards ceremony, I joined colleagues from Nikkei and the Financial Times at the Foreign Correspondents' Club. Over late-night drinks, I was reminded that Hong Kong was once the most important hub for international media. 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The world's second-largest contract chipmaker is building a cutting-edge fab in Taylor, Texas, that it says will start production in 2026, four years after construction began. Sources say Samsung is holding off on equipment installation, however, as it has yet to secure enough customers to utilize the planned capacity. Both UMC and Samsung, like many other chipmakers, face growing pressure from Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., China's top chipmaker, which has benefited from the country's push to localize chip production and strengthen supply chain resilience. Son's succession signals SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son has dropped his biggest hint yet about the future leadership of the technology conglomerate he started more than 40 years ago, writes the Financial Times' David Keohane. Son, who indicated he had the drive to stay in charge for another 10 years, said his successor was someone already working beside him within SoftBank. 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BYD vs Tesla BYD continues to lead global electric car sales, outperforming major U.S. rival Tesla for the third consecutive quarter, Yifan Yu of Nikkei Asia writes. Both companies faced industrywide headwinds, such as intensifying competition in China and growing macroeconomic uncertainties. But while BYD's shipments jumped 42.5% on the year for the April-June quarter, driven in part by a series of price cuts, Tesla sales fell around 13%. The U.S. company is facing some unique challenges, namely CEO Elon Musk's increasingly strained relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump, which investors see as an overhang on the company's stock and business prospects, and customer pushback against Musk's political activities. Peeling back the layers of the AI supply chain onion Welcome to the Tech Latest podcast. Hosted by our tech coverage veterans, Katey Creel and Akito Tanaka, every Tuesday we deliver the hottest trends and news from the sector. In this episode, Katey speaks with Taipei Tech correspondent Lauly Li and Tokyo correspondent Ryohtaroh Satoh about the ins-and-outs of the upstream AI supply chain, and the role small Japanese companies play in that ecosystem. Find us on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Voicy | YouTube | YouTube Music Suggested reads 1. US lifts curbs on chip design tool sales to China amid trade talks (Nikkei Asia) 2. Amazon developer plays down buzz over humanlike robots (Nikkei Asia) 3. BYD holds on to EV crown as Tesla faces robotaxi, Trump uncertainties (Nikkei Asia) 4. Crypto-crazy investors make South Korea the best-performing market in Asia (FT) 5. Donald Trump says he has found group of 'wealthy people' to buy TikTok (FT) 6. The Asian factories on the frontline of Trump's tariffs (FT) 7. Malaysia seeks to boost VCs with new fund, tax incentives (Nikkei Asia) 8. The vulnerabilities holding back Chinese industry (FT) 9. 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