However, nowadays the crunch is less likely to be glamorized than to be seen as a form of exploitation that risks causing mental illness and burnout. Part of the issue is that crunch time used to be just before a game launched, but now whole game development periods are "crunchy." With games getting more expensive, companies are incentivized to make even more short-term profits by squeezing developers. But what if AI could help to alleviate game-development hell? It may already be happening.

Teraverse, a project based at Kyoto University's Institute for the Future of Human Society (IFOHS), aims to bring Buddhism to the forthcoming "metaverse," an initiative heralded by Mark Zuckerberg of Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook Inc.) as the future of the internet. The Teraverse project will bring Buddhist art, philosophy, ritual, and practice to a globally available online community in the metaverse. Associate professor of Buddhist Studies and Tibetan Studies at Kyoto University, Seiji Kumagai explained: "With the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukrainian-Russian war, more and more people are feeling the pressure of the real world." He noted that the Buddhist metaverse was aimed at offering "new ways to blend traditional knowledge and science. As an option in today's diversified society, we hope they can bring understanding and enjoyment to people, creating new vitality and hope, and building a more vibrant society."

What does an "Art Deco Buddhist temple" look like? The phrase is nearly nonsensical; it's hard to imagine a Buddhist temple built in the Art Deco style, the early-twentieth-century Western aesthetic of attenuated architecture and streamlined forms. But this didn't deter the Twitter account @images_ai, which promises "images generated by A.I. machines." When another Twitter user threw out that prompt, in early August, @images_ai responded with a picture that looks something like an Orientalist Disney castle, a mashup of pointy spires and red angled roofs with a patterned stone-gray façade. Or perhaps it resembles the archetypal Chinese Buddhist temple crossed with a McDonald's--a fleeting, half-remembered image from a dream frozen into a permanent JPEG on social media.

In a Tokyo suburb, a forward-thinking Buddhist temple has been causing a stir with its funerals for a very special kind of'pet'. In some respects, the funerals are like any other in Japan, with incense smoke, chanting priests and prayers for a peaceful transition of the souls of the departed. The only difference is that the solemn ceremony is performed solely for owners to say goodbye to their robot dogs. Mourners, who have become deeply attached to their robot companions, attend the funerals because they believe their robots have a soul that needs to be put to rest. In a Tokyo suburb, a forward-thinking Buddhist temple has been causing a stir with its funerals for robot dogs.

From a sutra-chanting humanoid robot to automated cemeteries, technological innovation is changing how Japanese deal with funerary rituals. As traditional family ties erode, people are opting for more affordable and convenient alternatives to conventional ceremonies and burial services. Here's a peek into how mourning the dead is going high-tech in Japan: What is driving the trend? Various factors are behind the ongoing transformation of the funeral business, but demographics lie at its core. Japan's low birthrate has diminished the size of family units while the aging population has given rise to elderly single-person households.