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Yomiuri Shimbun
20-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Humanoid Artist Says Not Aiming to ‘Replace Humans'
GENEVA (AFP-Jiji) — When successful artist Ai-Da unveiled a new portrait of King Charles III last week, the humanoid robot described what inspired the layered and complex piece, and insisted it had no plans to 'replace' humans. The ultra-realistic robot, one of the most advanced in the world, is designed to resemble a human woman with an expressive, life-like face, large hazel eyes and brown hair cut in a bob. The arms, though, are unmistakably robotic, with exposed metal, and can be swapped out depending on the art form it is practicing. Late last year, Ai-Da's portrait of English mathematician Alan Turing became the first artwork by a humanoid robot to be sold at auction, fetching over $1 million. But as Ai-Da unveiled its latest creation — an oil painting entitled 'Algorithm King,' conceived using artificial intelligence — the humanoid insisted the work's importance could not be measured in money. 'The value of my artwork is to serve as a catalyst for discussions that explore ethical dimensions to new technologies,' the robot told AFP at Britain's diplomatic mission in Geneva, where the new portrait of King Charles will be housed. The idea, Ai-Da insisted in a slow, deliberate cadence, was to 'foster critical thinking and encourage responsible innovation for more equitable and sustainable futures.' 'Unique and creative' Speaking on the sidelines of the United Nations' AI for Good summit, Ai-Da, who has done sketches, paintings and sculptures, detailed the methods and inspiration behind the work. 'When creating my art, I use a variety of AI algorithms,' the robot said. 'I start with a basic idea or concept that I want to explore, and I think about the purpose of the art. What will it say?' The humanoid pointed out that 'King Charles has used his platform to raise awareness on environmental conservation and interfaith dialogue. I have aimed this portrait to celebrate' that, it said, adding that 'I hope King Charles will be appreciative of my efforts.' Aidan Meller, a specialist in modern and contemporary art, led the team that created Ai-Da in 2019 with artificial intelligence specialists at the universities of Oxford and Birmingham. He told AFP that he had conceived the humanoid robot — named after the world's first computer programmer Ada Lovelace — as an ethical arts project, and not 'to replace the painters.' Ai-Da agreed. There is 'no doubt that AI is changing our world, [including] the art world and forms of human creative expression,' the robot acknowledged. But 'I do not believe AI or my artwork will replace human artists.' Instead, Ai-Da said, the aim was 'to inspire viewers to think about how we use AI positively, while remaining conscious of its risks and limitations.' Asked if a painting made by a machine could really be considered art, the robot insisted that 'my artwork is unique and creative.' 'Whether humans decide it is art is an important and interesting point of conversation.'
Yomiuri Shimbun
17-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yomiuri Shimbun
‘Hippo Birthday': Thailand's Moo Deng Turns 1 Year Old
CHONBURI, Thailand (AFP-Jiji) — Thailand's pygmy hippo Moo Deng marked her first birthday on July 10, leaving behind the animal infancy which boosted her to worldwide internet fame for her cute antics. Crowds have been invited to a four-day festival at Khao Kheow Open Zoo where Moo Deng — meaning 'bouncy pork' in Thai — frolicked to stardom and amassed five million social media fans. The first day of the extravaganza falls on a Thai public holiday, and the agenda includes a lecture on 'Moo Deng's cheekiness,' while a skincare beautician has paid $3,000 to sponsor her fruit-festooned cake. There were hopes her stardom would spotlight the plight of the endangered pygmy hippo, native to West Africa, with only around 2,500 left alive according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. But social media and search engine metrics suggest Moo Deng's popularity peaked around late September last year before dramatically declining. 'Moo Deng went viral very quickly when she was born,' said Joshua Paul Dale, an academic who teaches courses on the phenomenon of 'cuteness' at Japan's Chuo University. 'Maybe part of our appreciation of cuteness is knowing that it's something that doesn't last very long,' he told AFP. Moo Deng's blubbery rose-blushed face launched a thousand memes and a plethora of merchandise including piggy banks, party shirts and popsicles — prompting her owners to trademark her likeness. The pint-sized pachyderm quadrupled ticket sales for the zoo where her small and sparse enclosure was once broadcasted by a 24/7 livestream. Moo Deng is part of a pantheon of captive animals who have enjoyed flash-in-the-pan popularity for their cuteness online, including Australia's Pesto the penguin and China's Hua Hua the panda. Pygmy hippos have a lifespan of between 30 and 50 years. While academic Dale predicts she may lose the limelight to longevity, he says Moo Deng could enjoy enduring appeal as fans recall 'how unbearably cute she was when she was very, very small and just born.' 'That can kind of continue on and affect our relationship with cute things, even when they grow up,' he said.
Yomiuri Shimbun
08-07-2025
- Climate
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Extreme Heat, Storms Take Toll at Club World Cup; Also Likely at 2026 World Cup
LOS ANGELES (AFP-Jiji) — Furnace-like heat and the threat of thunder and lightning are wreaking havoc at the Club World Cup — and more of the same is likely at the 2026 World Cup. With a brutal heatwave blanketing swathes of the eastern United States, adapting to the weather has become a key focus for coaches and players. Borussia Dortmund took the unusual step of leaving their substitutes in the dressing room for the first half of their game against Mamelodi Sundowns in Cincinnati, rather than have them sitting on the bench in blazing sunshine. Chelsea coach Enzo Maresca meanwhile cut short his team's training session in Philadelphia on June 23 as the City of Brotherly Love baked in temperatures of 37.2 C. Dortmund coach Niko Kovac, meanwhile, said the weather could ultimately shape the destiny of the tournament. 'I think that this tournament will be decided not by the best team, but the team that can adapt to these weather conditions the best. They will probably win this tournament,' Kovac said. While cooling breaks midway through each half have become standard during the tournament, Dortmund, like other teams, are taking extra steps to mitigate the heat and humidity. 'Our boys are very well taken care of by our doctors and the medical staff,' Kovac said. 'We have very cold towels. We put them in ice baths. The boys also need to cool down their legs and their feet in cold water and ice baths.' The experience of the Club World Cup is likely a preview of what can be expected at next year's men's World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico. A recent study published by the International Journal of Biometeorology warned of the risk posed by extreme heat at the tournament for players and spectators, citing climate change as a cause of 'extreme heat' events that were 'more frequent and intense.' Storm disruptions The study concluded that 14 of the 16 host cities being used for the 2026 World Cup experienced temperatures that frequently exceeded the commonly accepted safe thresholds for wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT) — a widely used measure for heat stress. The study argued for games to be scheduled outside of the afternoon windows when conditions were typically at their most fierce. In addition to the fierce heat and humidity, teams at the Club World Cup have also had to deal with matches being halted due to the threat of lightning. On June 24, Boca Juniors' game against Auckland City became the fifth match of the tournament to experience a lengthy delay due to public safety regulations used in the United States that mandate play is halted whenever lightning is within 16.1 kilometers of a stadium. A weather delay in Benfica's game against Auckland led to an interruption in play of nearly two hours. National Weather Service official Ben Schott, who advises FIFA and the U.S. World Cup taskforce for 2026, says the kind of weather affecting the ongoing competition is not out of the ordinary, and said teams and fans next year should plan accordingly. 'Nothing that we're seeing right now is unusual even though we are breaking records,' Schott told AFP. 'Most of the eastern United States is breaking records, and then that happens almost every summer. To expect something similar next year as a possibility is something that people should prepare for if you're going to come and enjoy the games.' While heat was an issue when the United States last hosted the World Cup finals in 1994, no games at that tournament were halted by storm warnings. That is due to increasingly sophisticated forecasting technology, Schott said. 'We're at a point now where we can start to see things almost a week in advance and predict them pretty accurately, as compared to 15-20 years ago,' Schott said. 'The advances in meteorology since we last had the World Cup here in 1994 have been substantial.' Schott said thunder and lightning were 'par for the course' in several regions of North America. 'This is pretty typical for United States weather for this time of the year,' Schott said. 'We get a lot of moisture that pumps in from the Gulf of Mexico, and they get the afternoon thunderstorms [to] pop up. 'So as we move towards World Cup 2026, things that we're seeing right now would be quite typical to be seen again.' FIFA did not immediately respond to a request for comment when contacted by AFP.
Yomiuri Shimbun
04-07-2025
- Science
- Yomiuri Shimbun
TWA 7b: James Webb Space Telescope Discovers Its 1st Exoplanet
PARIS (AFP-Jiji) — The James Webb Space Telescope has discovered its first exoplanet, astronomers said on June 25, capturing rare direct images of the relatively small world in the Earth's galactic backyard. The telescope, which can see farther into the universe than anything before it, has turbocharged the search for planets beyond the Solar System since coming online in 2022. Until now, however, its deep gaze has mostly been used to probe already known exoplanets — to find out key information such as the atmospheric composition — rather than tracking down new worlds. The discovery of exoplanet TWA 7b, revealed in a study in the journal Nature, 'represents a first for the telescope,' France's CNRS research center said in a statement. The large majority of the nearly 6,000 exoplanets found so far have been identified from the light they blot out when they pass in front of their star, rather than from direct images of the planet. Webb 'has spent an enormous amount of time observing planets that have never been directly imaged,' lead study author Anne-Marie Lagrange of the Paris Observatory told AFP. 'Blinded by light' Capturing direct images of faraway planets is difficult because they are 'very faint' due to a lack of heat, Lagrange said. Even worse, she added, 'we're blinded by the light of the star they orbit.' But Webb has a way to get around the problem. An attachment to Webb's MIRI instrument called a coronagraph masks the star, creating an effect similar to a solar eclipse. The telescope's infrared vision can then peer through and spot the planet. Astronomers pointed Webb at the star TWA 7, which is around a hundred light years from Earth — relatively nearby in the universe. The star, which was first spotted by the Hubble space telescope in 1999, was thought to be a promising target for two reasons. It is just 6.4 million years old — a baby compared to the Sun's 4.5 billion years — and still surrounded by a massive disc of gas and dust where planets are thought to form. And from the direction of Earth, the disc is seen from above, giving a good view of its rings. The three rings around the star, which stretch more than 100 times the distance separating the Sun and Earth, had previously been spotted by the Very Large Telescope in Chile. But inside an otherwise empty section of the second ring, the Webb telescope detected something particularly bright. Astronomers ruled out that the light was coming from an object at the edge of the Solar System, or from a distant galaxy behind the star. That could mean only that the light source was a relatively small and cold planet, with a mass at least 10 times lighter than any other exoplanet directly imaged so far, according to the study. Hunt for smaller worlds The researchers estimated that the planet's mass was similar to that of Saturn, a gas giant that weighs only a third of Jupiter, the biggest planet in the Solar System. Webb has increased the ability to detect exoplanets via direct images by a factor of 10, Lagrange said. That is important because smaller, rocky planets similar to Earth or Mars are the ultimate target in the search for habitable worlds outside of the Solar System. Lagrange said she would be delighted to discover 'Earth-like planets' one day. But she said astronomers needed to study all kinds of planets — and to understand how planetary systems form — to know whether the life-hosting Solar System is unique. In the future, astronomers expect the Webb telescope will be able to spot planets even smaller than TWA 7b. But directly capturing images of faraway worlds similar to Earth will require even more telescopic power, such as from the Extremely Large Telescope that is scheduled to come online in Chile in 2028.
Yomiuri Shimbun
04-07-2025
- General
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Archaeologists Find France's Deepest Wreck at 2.5 Kilometers
NICE, France (AFP-Jiji) — Archaeologists have discovered what they say are the remains of a 16th-century merchant ship more than 2.5 kilometers underwater off southern France, the deepest such find in its section of the Mediterranean or any other French waters. Archaeologists believe the ship was sailing from northern Italy loaded with ceramics and metal bars before it sunk. Despite a little modern household waste dotting its sunken cargo at 2,567 meters below sea level, they were excited about the potential of an archaeological site largely preserved intact. 'It's the deepest shipwreck ever found in French territorial waters,' Arnaud Schaumasse, the head of the culture ministry's underwater archaeology department, said on June 11. An underwater drone stumbled upon the sunken ship by chance in early March in waters near Saint-Tropez in southeastern France, deputy maritime prefect Thierry de la Burgade said. 'The sonar detected something quite big, so we went back with the device's camera, then against with an underwater robot to snap high-quality images,' he said. The drone was patrolling the seabed as part of a government project to explore and monitor France's deep-sea resources, from minerals to deep-sea internet cables. Archaeologist Marine Sadania said experts discovered 200 jugs with pinched spouts among the wreckage at the site they have dubbed 'Camarat 4.' Some of these jugs were marked with the monogram 'IHS,' the first three letters of the Greek name of Jesus, or covered with plant-inspired or geometric patterns. Those details seemed to indicate the jugs hailed from the Liguria region in what is now northern Italy, she said. 'As if time froze' Experts also identified piles of around 100 yellow plates, two cauldrons, an anchor and six cannons. Modern waste, such as a soda can or an empty yogurt pot, were spotted too. But despite this, 'the site — thanks to its depth which prevented any recovery or looting — has remained intact, as if time froze, which is exceptional,' Sadania the coming two years, she and colleagues plan to draw up a 3D digital version of the ship, as well as extract samples from the site to better study them before returning them to the public domain. According to the defense ministry in charge of exploring France's deep seas, researchers can remove an item from a shipwreck by guiding a submarine robot with pincers or arms, via a long cable linking the device to a boat on the surface. The deepest French authorities had found a sunken vessel until now was 2.3 kilometers under sea level off the southern city of Toulon in 2019. The wreckage belonged to La Minerve, a French submarine that plunged to its demise in 1968 with 52 navy crew on board, only four minutes after the start of a routine assignment.
