Japan roboticists predict rise of the machines

This photo taken on June 16, 2019 shows an assistant (L) for robotician Hiroshi Ishiguro "talking" with a robot at the research centre in Osaka. (File/AFP)
Updated 24 September 2019
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Japan roboticists predict rise of the machines

  • Robots of the future could look and act just like humans and even become their friends
  • Scientists believe service robots will one day help us with household chores

SEIKA, Japan: Set in 2019, cult 80s movie “Blade Runner” envisaged a neon-stained landscape of bionic “replicants” genetically engineered to look just like humans.

So far that has failed to materialize, but at a secretive research institute in western Japan, wild-haired roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro is fine-tuning technology that could blur the line between man and machine.

Highly intelligent, self-aware and helpful around the house — the robots of the future could look and act just like humans and even become their friends, Ishiguro and his team predict.

“I don’t know when a ‘Blade Runner’ future will happen, but I believe it will,” the Osaka University professor told AFP.
“Every year we’re developing new technology — like deep learning, which has improved the performance of pattern recognition,” he added.

“Now we’re focusing on intention and desire, and if we implement them into robots whether they become more human-like.”
Robots are already widely used in Japan — from cooking noodles to helping patients with physiotherapy.

Marketed as the world’s first “cyborg-type” robot, HAL (hybrid assistive limb) — developed by Tsukuba University and Japanese company Cyberdyne — is helping people in wheelchairs walk again using sensors connected to the unit’s control system.

Scientists believe service robots will one day help us with household chores, from taking out the garbage to making the perfect slice of toast.

Stockbrokers in Japan and around the world are already deploying AI bots to forecast stock market trends and science fiction’s rapid advance toward science fact owes much to the likes of Ishiguro.

He previously created an android copy of himself — using complex moving parts, electronics, silicone skin and his own hair — that he sends on business trips in his place.

But Ishiguro believes recent breakthroughs in robotics and artificial intelligence will accelerate the synthesis of man and machine.
“As a scientist, I hope to develop self-conscious robots like you see in ‘Blade Runner’ to help me understand what it is to be human,” he said. “That’s my motivation.”

The point at which that line between humans and machines converges has long been a source of anxiety for some, as depicted in popular culture.

In “Blade Runner,” Harrison Ford plays a police officer who tracks down and kills replicants that have escaped and are living among the population in Los Angeles.

The “Terminator” series starring Arnold Schwarzenegger centers on a self-aware computer network which initiates a nuclear holocaust and, through autonomous military machines, wages war against human survivors.

“I can’t understand why Hollywood wants to destroy robots,” shrugged Ishiguro, who in 2007 was named one of the top 100 living geniuses by global consultants firm Synectics.

“Look at Japanese cartoons and animations — robots are always friendly. We have a totally different cultural background,” noted the professor.

It’s not just Hollywood that has concerns over AI. Tesla’s Elon Musk has called for a global ban on killer robots, warning technological advances could revolutionize warfare and create new “weapons of terror” that target innocent people.

But Ishiguro insists there is no inherent danger in machines becoming self-aware or surpassing human intelligence.

“We don’t need to fear AI or robots, the risk is controllable,” he said. “My basic idea is that there is no difference between humans and robots.”

The ultimate goal, according to Ishiguro’s colleague Takashi Minato, is “to bring robots into society as human companions — it’s possible for robots to become our friends.”

But will they look like us, as Ishiguro believes, and how comfortable will we feel surrounded by autonomous humanoids?
Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori suggested in 1970 that the more robots resemble people, the creepier we find them — a phenomenon he called the “uncanny valley.”

Ishiguro’s first attempt at creating an android clone was based on his daughter and its “jerky movements” reduced her to tears.
He has since perfected the template, including a creation he claimed was the world’s first news-reading android and a robot priest at a Kyoto temple unveiled earlier this year.

Minato shares his boss’s visionary ideas.“Hopefully remote-control technology will develop to allow our alter egos to lead regular lives,” he said.

“Like in the movie ‘Surrogates’ — that would make life more convenient,” he added, referencing the sci-fi Bruce Willis hit in which people cocooned at home experience lives through robotic avatars.

While he won’t put a date on a real-life “Blade Runner” future, Ishiguro claims the rise of the machines has already begun.

“Already computers are more powerful than humans in some cases,” he said. “Technology is just another means of evolution. We are changing the definition of what it is to be human.”


A special tribunal to prosecute Russian leaders over Ukraine wins backing from European institutions

Updated 11 sec ago
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A special tribunal to prosecute Russian leaders over Ukraine wins backing from European institutions

Legal experts agreed on the framework for the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine
“Now, justice is coming,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said

BRUSSELS: A project to establish a court to prosecute the Russian leaders who orchestrated the invasion of Ukraine took a step forward Wednesday, with an announcement from a group of international organizations, including the European Union and the Council of Europe, working together with Ukraine.
Legal experts agreed on the framework for the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine, which will allow for the prosecution of senior Russian officials for planning and coordinating the full-scale invasion in 2022.
“When Russia chose to roll its tanks over Ukraine’s borders, breaking the UN Charter, it committed one of the gravest violations: the Crime of Aggression. Now, justice is coming,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement.
The move to create a special tribunal aims to fill a void created by limitations on the International Criminal Court. While The Hague-based court can go after Russian nationals for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, it cannot prosecute Russians for orchestrating the invasion itself.
The 2002 Rome Statute which created the court does include the crime of aggression but only for countries who have joined the court. The Russian Federation is not a member state.
“The accountability gap for the crime of aggression must be closed right now because the lid of Pandora’s Box is blown off completely and our world is plunged into chaos and darkness,” Ukraine’s deputy minister of justice Iryna Mudra told reporters after the announcement was made.
Ukraine has been pushing for the creation of a special tribunal since early in the conflict. “If we want true justice, we should not look for excuses and should not refer to the shortcomings of the current international law but make bold decisions that will correct those shortcomings that unfortunately exist in international law,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said during a visit to the Netherlands in 2023.
There are still significant issues to be worked out, including how the tribunal will be paid for and where it will be located. The Netherlands, home to the ICC, the International Court of Justice and other judicial organizations, has offered to host the tribunal.
It is already home to the International Center for Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression, which supports evidence-gathering for a future tribunal and is overseen by the European Union’s judicial cooperation agency, Eurojust. The Council of Europe-backed register of damages, which allows Ukrainian victims of war to catalog the financial harm they have suffered, is also based in the Netherlands.
The tribunal will be established under Ukrainian law, which leaves the future court unable to prosecute the so-called troika, consisting of a country’s head of state, head of government and foreign affairs minister. International law grants that trio immunity while they are in office.
The ICC, which isn’t limited by immunity, has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and several military leaders for war crimes.
The Council of Europe aims to get the tribunal up and running by the end of the year.

Italy blames badly drafted ICC warrant for Libyan suspect’s release

Updated 05 February 2025
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Italy blames badly drafted ICC warrant for Libyan suspect’s release

  • Justice Minister Carlo Nordio told parliament Wednesday that Najim had been arrested on a warrant “that I do not hesitate to define as characterised by inaccuracies “
  • Najim was freed after an appeals court refused to validate his arrest

ROME: Italy’s government shifted blame Wednesday for its much-criticized release of a Libyan war crimes suspect to the International Criminal Court (ICC), which it said had presented a poorly written arrest warrant.
Osama Almasri Najim, the head of Libya’s judicial police, was arrested in the northern Italian city of Turin on January 19 on an ICC warrant, only to be released and flown home to Tripoli two days later on an Italian air force plane.
Opposition parties have denounced the decision to free a man wanted on charges including murder, rape and torture relating to his management of Tripoli’s Mitiga detention center.
Justice Minister Carlo Nordio told parliament Wednesday that Najim had been arrested on a warrant “that I do not hesitate to define as characterised by inaccuracies, omissions, discrepancies and contradictory conclusions.”
Najim was freed after an appeals court refused to validate his arrest.
The justice minister said the court had noted discrepancies concerning dates within the arrest warrant, with crimes attributed to Najim in places dated to February 2011 and others to February 2015.
“An irreconcilable contradiction emerges regarding an essential element of the criminal conduct of the arrested person, regarding the time of the crime committed,” said Nordio, citing “patent, gross and serious contradictions” within the warrant.
The ICC six days later sent a “corrected version” of the arrest warrant, Nordio said, including the dissenting opinion of a judge who had questioned a lack of jurisdiction by the court.
AFP asked for comment from the ICC, but did not immediately receive a response.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni revealed last week that she, Nordio and Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi were under investigation over the case.
A complaint had been made to a Rome prosecutor, who passed it onto the special court that considers cases against ministers.
Elly Schlein, leader of the center-left opposition Democratic Party, said Wednesday that Italy’s “international credibility has been tarnished” by the case.
And she called again for Meloni to come to parliament herself to explain what she said was the government’s “deliberate choice... to free and escort home a Libyan torturer.”
“What kind of country do we want to be, colleagues? On the side of the tortured or on the side of the torturers?” Schlein asked in parliament.
Piantedosi spoke to MPs shortly after Nordio, where he repeated that once Najim had been released from custody, he was deemed too dangerous to remain in Italy.
He denied suggestions that Italy had bowed to pressure from Libya in repatriating Najim.
Some opposition politicians have alleged the suspect was sent home to avoid jeopardizing relations with Libya.
Italy has a controversial agreement dating from 2017 with the UN-backed Libyan government in Tripoli in which Rome provides training and funding to the Libyan coast guard for help deterring the departures of migrants, or returning those already at sea back to Libya.
“I deny in the most categorical manner that... the government received any act or communication that could even remotely be considered a form of undue pressure,” Piantedosi said.


Belgian police hunting two suspects after Brussels metro shooting

Updated 05 February 2025
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Belgian police hunting two suspects after Brussels metro shooting

  • Police initially launched a manhunt in the tunnels of the metro system
  • Broadcaster VRT said the shooting was probably drug-related and said the shooters

BRUSSELS: Belgian police were hunting two suspects on Wednesday after a shooting near the Brussels South international railway station, the city’s prosecutor’s office said.
Nobody was injured in the shooting, which happened around 6.00 am (0500 GMT), at the Clemenceau metro station in central Brussels, prosecutors said, adding there were no indications of a terrorist motive in the incident.
Police initially launched a manhunt in the tunnels of the metro system, which was partially closed after two men carrying machine guns were seen fleeing into the Clemenceau station.
Broadcaster VRT said the shooting was probably drug-related and said the shooters had aimed at one person but had missed.
VRT showed on its website images of two people walking into Clemenceau metro station in central Brussels and opening fire with automatic weapons. The station along with several others around the station were shut for hours after the incident.
Another video showed a large group of heavily armed police assembling at the Clemenceau station, as a massive search for the suspects got underway.
The incident crippled traffic on the heavily used metro system in Brussels, which hosts many European Union institutions and NATO’s headquarters.
By 2 p.m. (1300 GMT) the whole city metro system had reopened, including the stations around the Gare du Midi international train station, the arrival point for Eurostar trains from Paris and London.


Ukraine brings back 150 POWs in latest swap with Russia, Zelensky says

Updated 05 February 2025
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Ukraine brings back 150 POWs in latest swap with Russia, Zelensky says

  • “Some of the boys were held captive for more than two years,” Zelensky said

KYIV: Ukraine has brought back 150 troops from Russian captivity, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday, announcing the latest prisoner swap with Russia.
“All of them are from different sectors of the front... Some of the boys were held captive for more than two years,” he said on the Telegram messaging app.


Frenchman returns home after Indonesian death row reprieve: airport source

Updated 05 February 2025
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Frenchman returns home after Indonesian death row reprieve: airport source

  • Serge Atlaoui, 61, was to be driven from the Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport outside Paris to court and then on to jail
  • Atlaoui’s lawyer Richard Sedillot has said he would work to have his client’s sentence “adapted” so that the father of four could be released
Serge Atlaoui, 61, was to be driven from the Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport outside Paris to court and then on to jail
Atlaoui’s lawyer Richard Sedillot has said he would work to have his client’s sentence “adapted” so that the father of four could be released

BOBIGNY, France: A Frenchman reprieved after 18 years on death row in Indonesia for alleged drug offenses landed back in France on Wednesday, an airport source said.
Serge Atlaoui, 61, was to be driven from the Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport outside Paris to court and then on to jail, according to a source close to the case and the prosecutor’s office in the nearby town of Bobigny.
Under an agreement last month between both countries for his transfer, Jakarta has left it to the French government to grant him either clemency, amnesty or a reduced sentence.
France abolished capital punishment in 1981.
A prosecutor in Bobigny would inform Atlaoui “of his imprisonment in France in execution of his sentence,” the public prosecutor’s office there said before he landed.
He will then immediately be taken to prison, it added.
Atlaoui’s lawyer Richard Sedillot has said he would work to have his client’s sentence “adapted” so that the father of four could be released.
Atlaoui was arrested in 2005 at a factory in a Jakarta suburb where dozens of kilogrammes of drugs were discovered, with Indonesian authorities accusing him of being a “chemist.”
A welder from Metz in northeastern France, he has always denied being a drug trafficker, saying that he was installing machinery in what he thought was an acrylic factory.
Atlaoui had left Jakarta for Paris on Tuesday evening on board a KLM flight via Amsterdam.
His return was made possible after an agreement between French Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin and his Indonesian counterpart, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, on January 24.
In the agreement, Jakarta said it had decided not to execute Atlaoui and authorized his return on “humanitarian grounds” because he was ill.
Atlaoui was tight-lipped and wore a face mask at a news conference at Jakarta’s main airport, after he was driven there in a black van from the capital’s Salemba prison and handed over to French police officers.
Indonesia has some of the world’s toughest drug laws and has executed foreigners in the past.
The Southeast Asian country has in recent weeks released half a dozen high-profile detainees, including a Filipino mother on death row and the last five members of the so-called “Bali Nine” drug ring.
According to French association Ensemble contre la peine de mort (“Together Against the Death Penalty“), at least four other French citizens are on death row around the world: two in Morocco, one in China, and a woman in Algeria.