Large gray mushroom clouds form the backdrop of the Tokyo skyline as the capital becomes engulfed in smog. Pedestrians walk through the familiar streets of the capital's Shibuya Ward -- except it is blanketed in ash. It is all part of an artificial intelligence-generated video the Tokyo Metropolitan Government released last week to raise awareness of what could happen to the capital if Mount Fuji erupted. This was the first time for AI to be used to encourage further understanding of a potential Mount Fuji eruption and to call for better preparation among Tokyoites.

The world's first'city of the future' is nearly ready to welcome its first residents. Developed by car maker Toyota, 'Woven City' sits at the base of Mount Fuji in Japan and features at least 11 'smart' homes powered by hydrogen, AI and other technologies. CEO Akio Toyoda said the 10 billion utopia would serve as a'lab' for innovators to develop the technologies of tomorrow. The city is poised to welcome its first 100 residents, which will be employees, this fall, who will live there for free -- though they'll need to already be Toyota employees and work on developing experimental tech for the company. The program will then expand to 2,200 more people, who will include innovators and their families, parents and pets.

Toyota Motor plans to move in the first 100 residents of a futuristic city at the base of Mount Fuji in Japan by as soon as this fall. The initial residents of Woven City will be composed mostly of the carmaker's own employees and their families, and will gradually expand to about 2,000 residents as part of its initial phases, Toyota said Monday. "This year, residents will begin moving in as we slowly bring Woven City to life," Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda said at a news conference at CES in Las Vegas. "We aim to accelerate the pace at which new technologies can be tested and developed at Woven City." Toyoda debuted plans for the "living laboratory" five years ago as Toyota's then-president, saying then it would be a fully sustainable city and real-world showcase for artificial intelligence, advanced robotics, self-driving cars and smart homes.

With its ambitious project to build Woven City -- a fully-connected, human-centered city at the base of Mount Fuji -- Toyota Motor Corp. aims to become a world leader in smart city technology. The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted a rethink of how people move and live, and has reinforced the need to create technology that supports "happy, healthy" human life, says Toyota Chief Digital Officer James Kuffner. "Woven City is not meant to be a technology bubble where the technology stays only within Woven City. It's really meant to be a place where we incubate it, test it, accelerate it and then export it all over the world," Kuffner said in a recent interview. For countries like Japan, addressing the challenges posed by the graying of society -- such as mobility and healthy living -- is an urgent task.

Google often uses its annual developer conference, I/O, to showcase artificial intelligence with a wow factor. In 2016, it introduced the Google Home smart speaker with Google Assistant. In 2018, Duplex debuted to answer calls and schedule appointments for businesses. In keeping with that tradition, last month CEO Sundar Pichai introduced LaMDA, AI "designed to have a conversation on any topic." In an onstage demo, Pichai demonstrated what it's like to converse with a paper airplane and the celestial body Pluto.

Google LLC today announced some major breakthroughs in its artificial intelligence capabilities, including a new, next-generation conversational language model that creates far more realistic and interesting dialogue than anything it has come up with so far. Google's Language Model for Dialogue Applications was announced during its virtual I/O conference today, and displayed some huge leaps in AI language understanding too. LaMDA's skills were shown off in two separate conversations. In the first, LaMDA pretended to be the dwarf planet Pluto and answered questions on what people could expect to see if they visited. In the second, it played the role of a paper airplane, and discussed what it's like flying through the air and how to make a plane that travels farther.

Toyota Motor Corporation started construction this week on a 175-acre smart city at the base of Japan's Mount Fuji, about 62 miles from Tokyo, the company announced Tuesday. The city, which Toyota has dubbed the "Woven City," is expected to function as a testing ground for technologies like robotics, smart homes, and artificial intelligence. A starting population of about 360 inventors, senior citizens, and families with young children will test and develop these technologies. These residents, who are expected to move into the Woven City within five years, will live in smart homes with in-home robotics systems to assist with daily living and sensor-based artificial intelligence to monitor health and take care of other basic needs, according to the company. The eventual plan is for the city to house a population of more than 2,000 Toyota employees and their families, retired couples, retailers, and scientists.

NAGOYA – Toyota Motor Corp. on Tuesday began construction of a smart city at the foot of Mount Fuji in central Japan as a testing ground for new technologies including robotics and artificial intelligence. About 360 people including Toyota employees will initially move to the so-called Woven City to be built at the 70.8-hectare former Toyota factory site in Susono, Shizuoka Prefecture. It will be powered by electricity from fuel cells, which derive power from a hydrogen-oxygen reaction, in addition to solar panels. Toyota describes the city -- run with partner companies such as telecommunications giant Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. -- as a "living laboratory" where it will test autonomous vehicles, robots and artificial intelligence in a real-world environment. The automaker has commissioned Danish architect Bjarke Ingels, who designed the 2 World Trade Center in New York City and Google's headquarters in California, to plan the layout of the city.

LAS VEGAS – Toyota Motor Corp. said Monday it plans to build a prototype "city of the future" at the base of Mount Fuji, powered by hydrogen fuel cells and functioning as a laboratory for autonomous cars, smart homes, artificial intelligence and other technologies. Toyota unveiled the plan at CES, the big technology industry show. The development, to be built at the site of a factory that is planned to be closed in Shizuoka Prefecture, will be called "Woven City" -- a reference to Toyota's start as a loom manufacturing company -- and will serve as a home to full-time residents and researchers. Toyota did not disclose costs for the project. Executives at many major automakers have talked about how cities of the future could be designed to cut climate-changing emissions from vehicles and buildings, reduce congestion and apply internet technology to everyday life.

Mobile phone carrier KDDI Corp. said Thursday it plans to start using drones to support rescue operations and search for missing hikers on Mount Fuji from next summer, aiming to eventually expand the service to other areas. KDDI successfully conducted a trial in conjunction with the Gotemba Municipal Government, a city to the west of the 3,776-meter-high peak; Yamap Inc., a developer of smartphone map applications; and weather information provider Weathernews Inc. During a simulated search operation carried out in late October, the drone was able to locate the position of a missing hiker who was carrying a device with global positioning capabilities, and help observe the status of the person in need of assistance. Coupled with a newly developed system that monitors and forecasts weather conditions, a drone operator selected the most suitable flight route to the location of the missing person so that rescuers could be mobilized. KDDI said it plans to add a microphone and a speaker to the drone in the future so that rescuers and hikers can communicate.