Chinese mourners use AI to digitally resurrect the dead - CNA

"NEEDS ARE GROWING"

Wu and his wife were devastated when Xuanmo, their only child, died of a sudden stroke last year at the age of 22 while attending Exeter University in Britain.

The accounting and finance student, keen sportsman and posthumous organ donor "had such a rich and varied life", said Wu.

"He always carried in him this desire to help people and a sense of right and wrong," he told AFP.

Following a boom in deep learning technologies like ChatGPT in China, Wu began researching ways to resurrect him.

He gathered photos, videos and audio recordings of his son, and spent thousands of dollars hiring AI firms that cloned Xuanmo's face and voice.

The results so far are rudimentary, but he has also set up a work team to create a database containing vast amounts of information on his son.

Wu hopes to feed it into powerful algorithms to create an avatar capable of copying his son's thinking and speech patterns with extreme precision.

Several companies specialising in so-called "ghost bots" have emerged in the United States in recent years.

But the industry is booming in China, according to Zhang Zewei, the founder of the AI firm Super Brain and a former collaborator with Wu.

"On AI technology, China is in the highest class worldwide," said Zhang from a workspace in the eastern city of Jingjiang.

"And there are so many people in China, many with emotional needs, which gives us an advantage when it comes to market demand."

Super Brain charges between 10,000 and 20,000 yuan (US$1,400 to US$2,800) to create a basic avatar within about 20 days, said Zhang.

They range from those who have died to living parents unable to spend time with their children and - controversially - a heartbroken woman's ex-boyfriend.

Clients can even hold video calls with a staff member whose face and voice are digitally overlaid with those of the person they have lost.

"The significance for ... the whole world is huge," Zhang said.

"A digital version of someone (can) exist forever, even after their body has been lost."

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2023-12-14 05:41:27Z
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Japanese ministers quit over kickbacks scandal - CNA

"The public's doubts are around me over political funds, which is leading to distrust in the government. As an investigation is going on, I thought I wanted to set things right," Nishimura told reporters.

Kishida said a day before that he would deal with the allegations "head-on".

"I will make efforts like a ball of fire and lead the LDP to restore the public's trust," he told reporters.

POLL RATINGS

The prime minister's poll ratings are the worst for any premier since the LDP returned to power in 2012 because of voter anger about inflation as well as his handling of a string of earlier scandals.

The kickbacks allegedly went to party members who exceeded their ticket sales quotas for party fundraising events.

"If you are confident of selling (tickets), if you sell more than you are obliged to sell, that will all become your income, so that's easy and great," a senior official who used to work in the office of an LDP lawmaker told broadcaster ANN, with his face concealed and voice disguised.

The latest scandal implicates the largest faction within the LDP, which was headed by ex-premier Shinzo Abe before his assassination last year.

The grouping headed until recently by Kishida himself was also suspected of failing to declare more than 20 million yen in the three years to 2020, the Asahi Shimbun daily reported.

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2023-12-14 03:51:00Z
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Japan PM to axe ministers over fundraising scandal - CNA

TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Wednesday (Dec 13) announced he would make changes to his cabinet as he seeks to stem the fallout from a fundraising scandal that has further dented public support for his embattled administration.

The premier told a press conference he would make the changes on Thursday, just three months after a previous cabinet overhaul.

"I will take the lead in fighting to rebuild the ways of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to restore trust in politics," he said referring to his ruling LDP party.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, a powerful figure who coordinates policy across government on his behalf, is among four ministers and several deputy ministers expected to go, according to media reports.

Kishida said the changes were still being finalised.

The shake-up comes as prosecutors investigate whether some lawmakers in the ruling party received thousands of dollars in fundraising proceeds missing from official party accounts, according to media reports.

But analysts say a cabinet clearout is unlikely to draw a line under a scandal that has raised serious questions about Kishida's leadership and thrown his government into disarray.

Koichi Hagiuda, a high-ranking official from the LDP who oversees budget proposals, has decided to resign, broadcaster NHK and Kyodo news agency reported. Kishida is also considering shelving a planned trip to Brazil and Chile next month, the Mainichi newspaper said.

"The most Mr Kishida can hope for is to arrest the current decline in his personal support. Increasing it, however, will require more than cosmetic changes to personnel," said Corey Wallace, a political science scholar at Kanagawa University.

"There's only so many times this tactic works over a short period until diminishing returns set in."

Public support for Kishida's administration has slipped as low as 23 per cent in recent polls, the lowest since he came to office in 2021. He has twice reshuffled his cabinet, replacing ministers linked to a previous scandal in late 2022, and again in September as he looked to shore up his sagging ratings.

Support for his ruling LDP has fallen below 30 per cent for the first time since 2012, when it returned to power after a blip in its near total post-war dominance of Japanese politics, an NHK survey on Tuesday showed.

The prime minister does not need to hold an election until October 2025, and a fractured and weak opposition has historically struggled to make sustained inroads into the LDP's hold on power despite its at times fractious factional politics.

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2023-12-13 11:14:07Z
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Japan PM Kishida to Fire Ministers Over LDP Political Scandal Over Funds - Bloomberg

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he would reshuffle his cabinet, following reports he would fire four ministers as a wide-spread scandal raised questions about how long he would be able to stay in power.

“From the perspective of restoring trust in politics, and avoiding delays in government business, I will make personnel changes,” Kishida told reporters in Tokyo on Wednesday. He added he was still considering the content of the reshuffle, which would be announced Thursday.

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2023-12-13 09:35:36Z
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Japan PM Kishida to Fire Ministers Over LDP Political Scandal Over Funds - Bloomberg

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he would reshuffle his cabinet, following reports he would fire four ministers as a wide-spread scandal raised questions about how long he would be able to stay in power.

“From the perspective of restoring trust in politics, and avoiding delays in government business, I will make personnel changes,” Kishida told reporters in Tokyo on Wednesday. He added he was still considering the content of the reshuffle, which would be announced Thursday.

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2023-12-13 06:22:30Z
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Yemen's Houthis warn ships in Red Sea to avoid travel to Palestinian territories - CNA

CAIRO: A senior official from Yemen's Houthis on Tuesday (Dec 12) warned cargo ships in the Red Sea to avoid travelling toward the occupied Palestinian territories after the Iran-aligned group claimed an attack on a commercial tanker earlier in the day.

The Houthis earlier said they hit a Norwegian commercial tanker with a missile in their latest protest against Israel's bombardment of Gaza, underlining the risks of a conflict that has shaken the Middle East.

In addition to avoid heading toward the Palestinian territories, ships that pass Yemen should keep radios turned on, and quickly respond to Houthi attempts at communication, Mohamed Ali al-Houthi, head of Yemen's Houthi supreme revolutionary committee, said in a message on the X social media platform.

Al-Houthi also warned cargo ships against "falsifying their identity" or raising flags different from the country belonging to cargo ship owner.

The Iran-aligned group attacked the tanker, the STRINDA, because it was delivering crude oil to an Israeli terminal and after its crew ignored all warnings, Houthi military spokesperson Yehia Sarea had previously said in a statement.

The Houthis have waded into the Israel-Hamas conflict - which has spread around the region - attacking vessels in vital shipping lanes and firing drones and missiles at Israel more than 1,000 miles (1,609km) from their seat of power in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa.

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2023-12-13 01:14:36Z
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China's Xi meets Vietnam leaders in second day of state visit to Hanoi - CNA

HANOI: China's President Xi Jinping will meet Vietnamese leaders on Wednesday (Dec 13) on the second day of a state visit to Hanoi, during which dozens of deals have been announced, including on diplomatic ties, railways and telecommunications.

His first trip to Vietnam in six years came after the visit of US President Joe Biden in September, in a sign of the increasing importance of the Southeast Asian manufacturing hub amid trade tensions between the two global powers.

On Wednesday Xi will pay tribute to the mausoleum of the founding leader of Communist Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh. He will then meet the chairman of Vietnam's parliament, Vuong Dinh Hue, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and President Vo Van Thuong, according to a schedule from Vietnam's foreign ministry.

During the day, a China-Vietnam joint statement on diplomatic relations is expected to be formally signed after its text was shown to reporters on Tuesday.

Xi will meet students before departing in the afternoon from the Vietnamese capital, whose central roads had been festooned with China's and Vietnam's red flags for his visit.

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2023-12-13 02:18:01Z
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