Nintendo may be making a return to the big screen, its president revealed in an interview with Japan's Asahi Shimbun Monday. The company is exploring the potential of films based on popular video game franchises such as "Super Mario Bros." and "The Legend of Zelda." Another possibility is drawing on the material to create other digital content, a firm representative told Reuters. Nintendo is in talks with several production companies, with the goal of releasing its first new movie within the next three years. The production and its successors could introduce the firm's characters to a broader audience, which could bolster its video game business.

Two years ago, a lawyer in Indiana sent me a check for seventy-eight thousand dollars. The money was from my uncle Walt, who had died six months earlier. I hadn't been expecting any money from Walt, still less counting on it. So I thought I should earmark my inheritance for something special, to honor Walt's memory. It happened that my longtime girlfriend, a native Californian, had promised to join me on a big vacation. She'd been feeling grateful to me for understanding why she had to return full time to Santa Cruz and look after her mother, who was ninety-four and losing her short-term memory. She'd said to me, impulsively, "I will take a trip with you anywhere in the world you've always wanted to go." To this I'd replied, for reasons I'm at a loss to reconstruct, "Antarctica?" Her eyes widened in a way that I should have paid closer attention to. But a promise was a promise. Hoping to make Antarctica more palatable to my temperate Californian, I decided to spend Walt's money on the most deluxe of bookings--a three-week Lindblad National Geographic expedition to Antarctica, South Georgia island, and the Falklands. I paid a deposit, and the Californian and I proceeded to joke, uneasily, when the topic arose, about the nasty cold weather and the heaving South Polar seas to which she'd consented to subject herself. I kept reassuring her that as soon as she saw a penguin she'd be happy she'd made the trip. But when it came time to pay the balance, she asked if we might postpone by a year. Her mother's situation was unstable, and she was loath to put herself so irretrievably far from home. By this point, I, too, had developed a vague aversion to the trip, an inability to recall why I'd proposed Antarctica in the first place. The idea of "seeing it before it melts" was dismal and self-cancelling: why not just wait for it to melt and cross itself off the list of travel destinations? I was also put off by the seventh continent's status as a trophy, too remote and expensive for the common tourist to set foot on. It was true that there were extraordinary birds to be seen, not just penguins but oddities like the snowy sheathbill and the world's southernmost-breeding songbird, the South Georgia pipit. But the number of Antarctic species is fairly small, and I'd already reconciled myself to never seeing every bird species in the world. The best reason I could think of for going to Antarctica was that it was absolutely not the kind of thing the Californian and I did; we'd learned that our ideal getaway lasts three days.

John Markoff recently reported in the New York Times, "In its quest to maintain a United States military advantage, the Pentagon is aggressively turning to Silicon Valley's hottest technology -- artificial intelligence. On Wednesday, Secretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter made his fourth trip to the tech industry's heartland since being named to his post last year. Before that, it had been 20 years since a defense secretary had visited the area, he noted in a speech at a Defense Department research facility near Google's headquarters. The Pentagon's intense interest in A.I. -- and by connection the Silicon Valley companies specializing in that technology -- has grown out of the'Third Offset' strategy articulated by Mr. Carter last fall. Concerned about the re-emergence of China and Russia as military competitors, he stated that computer-based, high-tech weapons would give the American military an edge in the future."

Detroit automakers that viewed Silicon Valley as a "serious threat" just a few years ago are now jumping into deals, acquisitions and investments with West Coast tech companies, describing some of the partnerships as "getting married." The new relationships promise to bring the tech and automotive industries closer as they rush to develop self-driving cars, ride-sharing partnerships and to take advantage of other cutting-edge technology. The change from potential adversaries to partnerships illustrates a growing awareness that neither industry is likely to conquer the other anytime soon and that they need each other to evolve at the speed necessary to remain competitive. But like any successful marriage, the two parties must recognize their differences and figure out how to work more closely together, said Xavier Mosquet, a Detroit-based senior partner in the automotive practice of the Boston Consulting Group. These are industries that move at vastly different paces, operate in entirely different regulatory environments and come from different corporate cultures, he pointed out.

Chinese hi-tech firm Baidu has unveiled a plan to let driverless vehicles range freely around an entire city. The five-year plan will see the autonomous cars, vans and buses slowly introduced to the eastern city of Wuhu. Initially no passengers will be carried by the vehicles as the technology to control them is refined via journeys along designated test zones. Eventually the test areas will be expanded and passengers will be able to use the vehicles. "They want to be the first city in the world to embrace autonomous driving," said Wang Jing, Baidu's head of driverless cars, in an interview with the BBC's Click programme.

Japanese video game maker Nintendo Co. is eyeing the movie business for growth. Company spokesman Makoto Wakae said Monday details are undecided but the work might be a theater release or a DVD. Nintendo, which makes the Wii U home console and Nintendo 3DS hand-held machine, has licensed its game characters in the past, such as with its Pokemon movies, but it is now thinking about make its own film content. It won't become a full-fledged film studio, but filmmaking is an area it has chosen for future investment of proceeds from selling its stake in the major league Seattle Mariners, planned for later this year, according to Kyoto-based Nintendo. The Japanese daily newspaper Asahi reported Monday that Nintendo's work might be 3-D animation.

Of course, gamers go into every year filled with excitement and anticipation. This is a medium that thrives on slow burn hype, with even tiny indie projects using months of teaser shots and YouTube trailers to garner interest. The good news is, there's usually enough brilliant, innovative and compelling fare to justify that enthusiasm – and 2016 looks to be no exception. Although you could fill a dozen'most anticipated' lists with all the grandiose sequels and blockbusting franchises due out this year, there are also dozens of smaller-scale independent projects, keeping the idiosyncratic and experimental heart of video game culture beating. Here, then, is our pick of the biggest, smallest and strangest titles to look out for in the coming 12 months.

TOKYO, May 16, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- UBIC, Inc. (Nasdaq:UBIC) (TSE:2158), a leading provider of international litigation support and big-data analysis services, and Hearts United Group Co., Ltd. announced today that on June 1, they will launch DH-AI, a next-generation system designed to detect potential signs of risk contained in comments and other content posted on the Internet using UBIC's KIBIT artificial intelligence (AI) engine. Since UBIC started engaging in joint research with Hearts United Group in October 2015, both companies set out to develop cutting-edge debugging technologies and services using AI. By leveraging their technical expertise, the companies have made steady progress researching AI-based debugging and are now preparing the service for commercialization. In recent years, many firms have launched community and blog websites as a channel to communicate with end users, so as to promote their products and services. Increasingly, malicious comments have been posted on such websites, which often serve to incite hostile exchanges or mislead customers about products and services, resulting in damage to the companies' public images.

While in Hollywood films hi-tech robots are portrayed as a threat, Chinese engineers might be able to change your mind.

"Crowd Control: Heaven Makes a Killing," CNET's crowdsourced science fiction novel written and edited by readers, continues. To read past installments, learn more about the project or see our contributor list, visit the digital table of contents. The headlines on Meta's screens were uncharacteristically ominous in the weeks leading up to his final certification at the academy. Discussions in classes were more easily derailed by questions about the future of interversal trade and immigration asked by students who just weeks earlier were more likely to be drooling or snoring through sessions that were largely remedial, a last chance to catch up. "I don't understand why we can't just offer more positions to the subs," Zulema shouted in frustration during one class, surprising her fellow students with her use of a derogatory term for migrants. "Yea, we need help now," echoed Nara.