Business leaders are calling for leveraging the United Nation's sustainable development goals to achieve global peace because the coronavirus pandemic is exacerbating social and economic inequalities not just in Japan, but worldwide. Yoshimitsu Kobayashi, chairman of Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corp., said Saturday that the pandemic has forced a rethink of political and economic strategies. He called for shifting the focus of such plans from profit growth to building sustainable peace by addressing the deepening inequalities. Kobayashi was one of the guest speakers at this year's Hiroshima Business Forum for Global Peace, a symposium on business strategies and political solutions that address global threats. While praising the progress of technology, Kobayashi warned it could also lead to the creation of an underprivileged class as technology further pushes people out of job markets.

In 1971, the inaugural European Management Symposium was held in Davos, a ski resort in the Swiss Alps, the event a precursor to what would later become the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos. "I felt the future should not be based on animosity and controversy. It should be based on reconciliation," WEF founder and Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab told The Japan Times during a 2013 interview, recalling the early years of the Davos conference. "In 1971, I published a book on multistakeholders, which means problems should always be solved through dialogues among the stakeholders, among all those people who are interested in the problems. So, I created a platform for multistakeholders to come together."

BERLIN – A few notes scribbled in a notebook are all that German composer Ludwig van Beethoven left of his 10th Symphony before his death in 1827. Now, a team of musicologists and programmers is racing to complete a version of the piece using artificial intelligence, ahead of the 250th anniversary of his birth next year. "The progress has been impressive, even if the computer still has a lot to learn," said Christine Siegert, head of archives at Beethoven House in the composer's hometown of Bonn. Siegert said she was "convinced" that Beethoven would have approved since he too was an innovator at the time, citing his compositions for the panharmonicon -- a type of organ that reproduces the sounds of wind and percussion instruments. And she insisted the work would not affect his legacy because it would never be regarded as part of his oeuvre. The final result of the project will be performed by a full orchestra on April 28 next year in Bonn, a centerpiece of celebrations for a composer who defined the romantic era of classical music.

LONDON – From the Luddite movement in the early nineteenth century to the writings of prominent economists like John Maynard Keynes and Wassily Leontief generations later, the prospect of automation has always raised serious concerns about jobs. Keynes and Leontief doubted there would be enough jobs left for workers to do. The impact of today's digital technologies on the labor market raises three questions. Will there be enough jobs for workers to do? Where will these jobs be?

Human brains are extremely energy-efficient. When a person thinks in a concentrated manner, his or her brain consumes a mere 21 watts of electricity. But AI doing the same degree of intensive thinking requires over 10,000 times more electricity. If that is the case, the international competitiveness of businesses will depend on factors concerning the supply and cost of electricity in their home country. How, then, does Japan stand with regard to power supply and cost?

Advances in artificial intelligence (AI), 5G wireless networks and other technologies are making our lives more exciting and convenient, but a young entrepreneur, professor and media artist is also keen to harness them for other ambitions: addressing social challenges unique to Japanese society. The fifth-generation, or 5G, high-speed mobile network set to enter commercial service in the country next spring will "have an enormous impact on our communication media," Yoichi Ochiai said in a mid-September interview with The Japan Times. It will become a means for us to resolve challenges." Ochiai, 32, who specializes in human-computer interaction and computer graphics, serves as an associate professor at the University of Tsukuba and is CEO of Pixie Dust Technologies Inc. Also a commentator on technology, Ochiai will give a speech at the digital trade fair CEATEC 2019, which runs from Oct. 15 to 18 at Makuhari Messe. The Japan Times is a prime media partner for the event.

CEATEC (Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies) is an annual event where innovative technologies, products and services are all exhibited together in one place to illustrate what a future society may be like. This year's CEATEC, for which The Japan Times is a prime media partner, will be held at Makuhari Messe in Chiba Prefecture from Oct. 15 to 18. It requires preregistration from all visitors on the CEATEC website, www.ceatec.com. People can also register online at the venue reception area during the event. The event, sponsored by the CEATEC Executive Board, comprised of the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association, the Communications and Information Network Association of Japan and the Computer Software Association of Japan, consists of two major parts -- an exhibition and a conference.

This has given rise to an extreme theory that either AI or robots will replace humans in many jobs, pushing the unemployment rate close to 50 percent. Although the jobless rate reaching 50 percent may be an exaggeration, it appears all but certain that the rate of technological unemployment -- loss of employment caused by technological progress -- will reach 10 to 20 percent. This means that unless some steps are taken, the Fourth Industrial Revolution driven by AI, the "internet of things" and big data will lead the human race to a dystopia rather than to a utopia. What measures could be taken to lead us to an utopia instead? Gross domestic product, the total value of income earned in a country over a given period of time, is distributed to capital and labor.

Can Japan compete in the global battle for dominance in artificial intelligence and robotics that is under way? A long-standing strength in AI research gives the United States an advantage that is reinforced by the deep bench of AI talent at its numerous universities and tech giants like Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google and Microsoft. China's government incentives and growing leadership in the mobile economy has led to a data advantage -- its e-commerce giants like Tencent, Alibaba, Baidu and DiDi have an unparalleled view into the minutiae of everyday economic activities across hundreds of millions of consumers, data that feeds into increasingly sophisticated deep learning systems that power AI-native applications ranging from news filtering to medical diagnostics. Japan does not have to be left behind as the U.S. and China race ahead of the rest of the world. But building dominance in this new generation of technologies will require change and planning.

WASHINGTON – Looking for that perfect recipe, or a new flavor combination that delights the senses? Increasingly, players in the food industry are embracing artificial intelligence to better understand the dynamics of flavor, aroma and other factors that go into making a food product a success. Earlier this year, IBM became a surprise entrant to the food sector, announcing a partnership with seasonings maker McCormick to "explore flavor territories more quickly and efficiently using AI to learn and predict new flavor combinations" by utilizing data collected from millions of data points. The partnership highlights how technology is being used to disrupt the food industry by helping develop new products and respond to consumer preferences and offer improved nutrition and flavor. "More and more, food companies are embracing digitization and becoming data-driven," said Bernard Lahousse, co-founder of Foodpairing, a startup with offices in Belgium and New York that develops digital food "maps" and algorithms to recommend food and drink combinations.