SoftBank Group's Japanese mobile unit and OpenAI are set to launch AI services for local companies next year. SoftBank Group's Japanese mobile unit and OpenAI will launch AI services for local companies next year, seeking to realize real revenue in the face of growing concerns over sky-high valuations. SoftBank Corp. and Open AI are still fine-tuning the products the two companies are co-developing for Japanese enterprises, said Junichi Miyakawa, president of the country's third-largest mobile carrier. Miyakawa said he has seen a test version of the services, which once launched would "completely change" the speed in which business is done. One feature is voice recognition that would allow users to rely less on manual typing, he said.

Saury catches from August to the end of September this year totaled about 28,500 tons -- a 2.4-fold increase from the same period last year. The Japan Fisheries Information Service Center will start a service next fishing season that shows expected fishing grounds for saury by size class based on analysis using artificial intelligence technology. The Tokyo-based group of fisheries organizations provides information on fishing and ocean conditions. Since 2020, the group provides its predictions of likely saury fishing spots using AI, based on seawater temperature changes and past fishing records. The accuracy of the predictions has improved year after year.

Japanese education services company Benesse will offer a new service to help elementary school students with their research projects using generative artificial intelligence during the summer break. The service, which will be provided for free on its website for parents, will make suggestions and offer tips to help students search research themes and compile their findings, the company said in a recent press release. For example, if one asks "How can I study the biology of dinosaurs?" the AI would give such advice as "How about finding out what they ate?" without giving exact answers, the company said. This could be due to a conflict with your ad-blocking or security software. Please add japantimes.co.jp and piano.io to your list of allowed sites.