Combined net profits at Japanese listed companies in fiscal 2025 rose 9.0% from the previous year to a record, according to SMBC Nikko Securities. Combined net profits at Japanese listed companies in fiscal 2025 rose 9.0% from the previous year to a record ¥54.7 trillion, according to SMBC Nikko Securities. The figure for the year ended in March hit a record high for the fifth consecutive year, thanks to rosy earnings of semiconductor-and data center-related companies amid strong demand for artificial intelligence, as well as strong earnings of banks on the back of higher interest rates. SMBC Nikko Securities compiled earnings data for 1,116 Tokyo Stock Exchange-listed companies in the TOPIX stock price index that close their books in March, with 99.5% of them having disclosed their fiscal 2025 earnings as of Thursday. While auto companies and other transportation equipment firms suffered sharp profit drops from the impact of a U.S. high tariff policy, profits were boosted in a wide range of industry sectors, such as electric appliances, telecommunications and nonferrous metals, supported by growing AI demand.

Health Psychology 3 buttons that don't actually do anything More information Adding us as a Preferred Source in Google by using this link indicates that you would like to see more of our content in Google News results. Buttons can make you feel empowered, even if they don't actually do anything. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Have you ever pressed a crosswalk button and wondered if it actually does anything? You might be onto something.

At least 82 people have been killed and two are missing after a coal mine blast in northern China, officials have said. The gas explosion at the Liushenyu Coal Mine is the worst mining disaster in China since 2009, and Chinese President Xi Jinping said no effort must be spared in the search and rescue operation. Early on Sunday morning, rescuers deployed mine inspection robots underground, equipped with gas sensors and infrared cameras, state media reported. The BBC's China correspondent Stephen McDonell is at the scene of the blast in Shanxi province. Could a football match soften North Korea-South Korea relations?

These Robots Are Making Meals for a Nonprofit in San Francisco's Tenderloin A nonprofit in the city's most troubled district has turned to robotic meal prep tech to make up for a dearth of human volunteers. Project Open Hand, a nonprofit founded in 1985 by local grandmother and HIV-awareness advocate Ruth Brinker, prepares and packages meals to meet the diverse nutritional requirements of people who need them. The effort began in response to the AIDS crisis, but the nonprofit has since expanded the meals it makes for people with conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, or chronic kidney disease. But it takes many people to make these meals, and Project Open Hand has struggled to entice volunteers to help fill the meal kits. The organization is housed in a four-story building in San Francisco's Tenderloin district.

I was skeptical about ChatGPT and Claude at first. Then I started to come around--and I'm glad I did. Enter your email to receive alerts for this author. You can manage your newsletter subscriptions at any time. You're already subscribed to the aa_Alex_Kirshner newsletter.

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. TL;DR: The Microsoft Visual Studio Professional 2026 bundle includes 15 coding courses and is on sale for $49.97 (regularly $1,999.99) This is the kind of tech purchase that tends to pay for itself pretty quickly. The Microsoft Visual Studio Professional 2026 bundle pairs one of the most widely used development environments in the industry with a full library of coding courses -- all for a single one-time payment. Visual Studio Professional 2026 has been a staple for professional developers for years, and the 2026 version pushes productivity even further.

I avoid AI tools because thinking is supposed to be hard. It's what makes us human Long before the age of multi-billion-dollar AI companies promising to disrupt the field of software development, I was learning to code the hard way. It was the mid-2000s, and I was a child with unmonitored access to the family computer. With the help of a basic text editor program, I learned how to make websites - first basic, then increasingly complex - from scratch. The results were never as beautiful or polished as in my imagination, but I could live with that, because I was learning a craft. The painstaking hours of debugging and poring over arcane documentation for projects that I eventually abandoned never felt wasted.

'AI washing': firms are scrambling to rebrand themselves as tech-focused UK companies are performing "yoga-level" stretches to describe themselves as AI specialists in an attempt to capitalise on the buzz around the technology, public relations firms have said. Weary communications executives tasked with securing media coverage for brands have complained that bosses in low-tech industries or running businesses that use automation but not generative AI, are increasingly demanding they are pitched to journalists as artificial intelligence companies. "You can almost hear the eyes roll when you mention the word AI to a reporter," said a publicist in south London who represents a portfolio of tech and design firms. "I've watched a steady stream of companies try to bolt the label AI on to whatever they do, no matter how tenuous the link." Imran Ariff, a media strategist for Fight or Flight, a London-based communications agency, said: "It can be easy for brands to'drink their own Kool-Aid' when they're so proud of what they're doing and consequently, go too far in their efforts to promote their AI capabilities."

From beachside summits to yacht parties, leading figures at Cannes debated whether AI was cinema's next creative revolution or an existential threat. From beachside summits to yacht parties, leading figures at Cannes debated whether AI was cinema's next creative revolution or an existential threat. Darren Aronofsky among proponents of using technology, while Guillermo del Toro says he would'rather die' U nder a white marquee on Cannes' Croisette beach, with the Mediterranean glistening behind him and superyachts drifting across the horizon, the director Darren Aronofsky addressed an audience of executives and tech evangelists gathered for an "AI for Talent" summit. "There's so much pushback against AI," said Aronofsky, who has faced criticism over his embrace of generative AI projects though his new studio, Primordial Soup, at a time when artificial intelligence has become one of the film industry's most divisive fault lines. Darren Aronofsky: 'AI is not impersonating a person, it's actually a tool.' "AI is a terrible word, because it's a catchphrase for so many different things," continued the director of Requiem for a Dream, The Wrestler, and Black Swan.

A new James Bond is about to make his debut - not on the big screen, but in a video game. It presents Bond before he's earned his 00 status, offering a fresh take on a character that's seen continual reinvention for more than six decades. The new game arrives at a moment of transition for the franchise, with no actor yet confirmed as the next cinematic Bond following Daniel Craig's final appearance in No Time to Die in 2021. The casting process for the live action film has only just officially started, about 15 months since Amazon MGM Studios took control of the Bond franchise. Gibson's portrayal focuses on a more vulnerable, less experienced version of the character.