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TECHNOLOGY A23
Saturday 7 November 2015
Toyota invests $1B in artificial intelligence in U.S.
YURI KAGEYAMA Toyota Motor Corp.’s Executive Technical Advisor Gill Pratt, left, and President Akio Toyoda, right, sending his father to a nurs-
AP Business Writer shake hands during a press conference on artificial intelligence in Tokyo, Friday, Nov. 6, 2015. ing home when he was 84.
TOKYO (AP) — Toyota is Pratt, who grew up on
investing $1 billion in a re- Associated Press Japanese robot animation
search company it’s setting and dreamed of one day
up in Silicon Valley to de- an R2-D2-like robot de- sage that the automaker’s and MIT. building such robots, said
velop artificial intelligence signed to help the elderly, vision was more than about Pratt said the company’s he chose Toyota over other
and robotics, underlining the sick and people in just cars, Toyoda appeared goals are to support older jobs because it was “so fo-
the Japanese automak- wheelchairs by picking up at a Tokyo hotel with high people in their homes with cused on social good.”
er’s determination to lead and carrying objects. The profile robotics expert Gill robotics, make cars free of He said coming up with
in futuristic cars that drive automaker has also shown Pratt, who will head the accidents and use AI to al- a car as smart as a hu-
themselves and apply the human-shaped entertain- new organization called low all people to drive re- man being will take a long
technology to other areas ment robots that can con- Toyota Research Institute gardless of ability. time. But that also meant
of daily life. verse and play musical in- Inc. He gave three examples the competition had just
Toyota Motor Corp. Presi- struments. As the world’s Pratt was formerly a pro- from his personal life that begun and no one was
dent Akio Toyoda said Fri- top auto manufacturer, gram manager at the motivate him to develop ahead significantly.
day the company will start Toyota already uses sophis- U.S. military’s Defense Ad- robotics and related tech- The new company will
operating from January ticated robotic arms and vanced Research Proj- nology: when he was a be hiring researchers and
2016, with 200 employees computers in auto produc- ects Agency. He joined child, seeing a boy on a bi- engineers, according to
at a Silicon Valley facility tion, including doing paint Toyota as a technical ad- cycle killed by a car; telling Toyota. Wooing talent is
near Stanford University. A jobs and screwing in parts. viser when it set up its AI his 83-year-old father he crucial because not only
second facility will be es- To drive home the mes- research effort at Stanford could no longer drive; and are automakers such as
tablished near Massachu- General Motors, Tesla and
setts Institute of Technology Nissan competing on au-
in Cambridge. tonomous driving but out-
The investment, which will siders are as well, including
be spread over five years, Google, Apple and Uber.
comes on top of $50 million “The rapid adoption of ad-
Toyota announced earlier vanced technology for the
for artificial intelligence re- purposes of autonomous
search at Stanford and MIT. driving and connected car
Toyota said its interest ex- services means car com-
tended beyond autono- panies have to act more
mous driving, which is start- like tech startups than tra-
ing to be offered by some ditional automakers,” said
automakers and being Karl Brauer, senior analyst
promised by almost all of at Kelley Blue Book. Toyota,
them. The technology was which has gone through
pointing to a new industry troubled times with massive
for everyday use, deliver- recalls and the 2011 tsuna-
ing a safer lifestyle overall, mi in northeastern Japan,
it said. has the cash these days to
Toyota has already shown invest in the future.q
Time Warner CEO signals delays
for DC shows on Netflix, Hulu
RYAN NAKASHIMA traditional cable custom- mente of Nomura Secu- In this June 18, 2014, file photo, Jeffrey Bewkes, Chairman
AP Business Writer ers. rities said Time Warner is and CEO of Time Warner, attends the Cannes Lions 2014, 61st
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Fans Withdrawing shows from reacting to the growth of International Advertising Festival in Cannes, southern France.
of superhero shows based online services would make Netflix as a power in the TV
in the DC Comics universe traditional cable and satel- industry. Associated Press
like “The Flash,” ‘’Arrow” lite TV packages more at- “Some of the media exec-
and “Gotham” might have tractive. Time Warner is fo- utives are looking at Net- demand libraries, rather networks such as CNN, TNT
to wait a lot longer for past cused on “delivering even flix as a digital distributor than just the most recent and TBS fell a worse-than-
seasons’ episodes to come more value to consumers, who has gained too much five episodes. expected 1 percent this
to Netflix and Hulu. especially those who sub- power,” he said. “They are year, and it expects a simi-
Jeff Bewkes, the chief ex- scribe to the traditional thinking, look, maybe we Time Warner also spooked lar decline next year.
ecutive of DC-owner Time bundle,” Bewkes said. should keep our most valu- investors wary that grow- The comments came after
Warner Inc., told ana- There are eight DC-based able content inside the ing numbers of people Time Warner Inc. reported
lysts on a conference call shows on TV right now, in- traditional pay TV ecosys- are skipping a traditional third-quarter earnings early
Wednesday that the com- cluding newcomer “Su- tem, which is the golden cable subscription. It said Wednesday that disap-
pany is considering wheth- pergirl,” which launched goose.” U.S. subscribers of its Turner pointed investors.q
er to let online services like on CBS last week. You can DiClemente speculated
Netflix have its shows sev- currently access many of that satellite and cable
eral years after they first air, the previous seasons of TV providers like DirecTV
rather than one year later. established DC Comics and Comcast could soon
He said that could mean shows, up until the last sea- be able to offer back epi-
more older episodes are son, on Netflix and Hulu. sodes for the entire current
available on-demand to Analyst Anthony DiCle- season to customers in on-
