Transcript

Hello and welcome to today’s news from TotemoTech on August 20th, 2023. In our first news story, the PC and mobile phone market in Japan experienced a decline in the first half of 2023, according to a report by GfK Japan. The sales of PCs decreased by 4% compared to the same period last year, while mobile phone sales decreased by 13%. This indicates a shrinking trend in the market for both devices.

Moving on to our next story, Honda has unveiled its new electric vehicle (EV) models for the North American market. The company showcased the Acura brand’s first EV, called the ‘ZDX,’ as well as the high-performance ‘ZDX Type S’ during the Monterey Car Week in California. These EVs are expected to have a range of over 480 kilometers and are set to be released in early 2024.

In other news, NTT Data Group has been certified as a global system integrator partner by Microsoft. This partnership will focus on collaboration in the cloud domain and aims to address industry-specific challenges in sectors such as finance and healthcare.

Shifting gears, the city of Soja has launched a dialogue response service using a generated AI system. This service, developed in collaboration with Bot Express, is designed to provide answers to inquiries related to the integration of My Number Cards and health insurance certificates. Users can ask questions through the city’s official LINE account, and the generated AI will provide responses.

Next, a former Apple semiconductor engineer predicts that AI will almost completely replace semiconductor design engineers in the future. Jim Keller, the President and CTO of Tenstorrent, a company specializing in AI processors, boldly suggests that AI will fully substitute human designers in the field of semiconductor design.

Moving on to the semiconductor industry, domestic production facilities are rapidly gearing up for mass production. Rapidus, a company in Tokyo, is ambitiously aiming for the 2-nanometer generation of advanced semiconductors. This push to establish a domestic production base for cutting-edge semiconductors is happening at an accelerated pace.

Lastly, the author of the book ‘The Semiconductor War’ discusses the future of the industry. With the expansion of military applications, advanced semiconductors have become indispensable in autonomous weapons and the utilization of generated AI in the field of information warfare. The recent conflict between Russia and Ukraine has further highlighted the importance of semiconductors in military operations.

That’s all for today’s news. Thank you for listening to TotemoTech. Stay tuned for more updates on the latest tech developments. And that’s all for today’s news. Thanks for listening to TotemoTech.

Keywords - japan, tech, news