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51% of Japanese game makers use generative AI

51% of Japanese developers use generative AI in game development.

In new research from Tokyo Game Show organizer Computer Entertainment Supplier’s Association (CESA), as reported by The Nikkei, of the 54 Japanese companies polled between June and July 2025, over half used genAI. Primarily, it’s used to assist with generating visual assets, images, and character art, as well as story generation, in-game text, and support with programming.

The 2025 CESA Video Game Industry Report also revealed that 32% of respondents were also using AI to develop in-house development engines.

Novel film manufacturing technique lets robots walk on water

Imagine tiny robots zipping across the surface of a lake to check water quality or searching for people in flooded areas. This technology is moving closer to reality thanks to work by researchers at the University of Virginia’s School of Engineering and Applied Science. Inspired by nature and insects such as water striders that walk on water, they created two prototype devices that can propel themselves across liquid surfaces.

The first, called HydroFlexor, paddles across a surface using fin-like motions. The second, named HydroBuckler, “walks” forward with a buckling motion that mimics the water-walking insects. The key innovation that made this possible is a technology developed by the team called HydroSpread.

To float and move on the surface of a liquid, robots need ultrathin, flexible films. Traditional approaches to making such films involve manufacturing them on a rigid surface, such as glass, and then transferring them to water, which often damages or breaks the film. However, the HydroSpread technique allows the films to be made directly on the liquid.

Microsoft starts rolling out Gaming Copilot on Windows 11 PCs

Microsoft has begun rolling out the beta version of its AI-powered Gaming Copilot to Windows 11 systems for users aged 18 or older, excluding those in mainland China.

Tagged as a “personal gaming sidekick,” Gaming Copilot will also be pushed to Xbox mobile app users on Apple and Android devices starting next month.

To start using Gaming Copilot in the Game Bar, Windows users must install the Xbox PC app on their PC and use the Windows logo key + G keyboard shortcut to open the Game Bar. Next, they can find the Gaming Copilot icon in the Home Bar, open the widget, and log in to their Xbox account.

Timelapse of Future Humanoid Robots (2029 — 2200+)

This is the future of AI and robots. Take a journey into the future and explore the possibilities and predictions of AI humanoid robots. This timelapse of the future explores robots that move faster than humans can see, humanoids and teslabots with human skin faces (biobots), and the building of an artificial super intelligence that walks among humans.

Game parks allow humans in their homes to control humanoids in hybrid digital real world games.

Humanoids are able to self-transfer their entire minds into digital backup worlds and into other physical machines.

Hives of humanoids link their computational power into a single super-intelligence while maintaining individual bodies. They are building a super intelligence. More intelligent than the collective. An intelligence that lives in the digital world… and the real.

Encyclopedia of the Future entries: Android Majority, Machine Mirror Point, Digital Twin Simulation, Cyborgology.

Personal inspiration in creating this video comes from: Westworld TV show, and the Ex Machina movie.

Continue reading “Timelapse of Future Humanoid Robots (2029 — 2200+)” | >

Strangers whose brains respond alike to movie clips often become friends later, study finds

People often bond with strangers over the books they read or the movies they watch and build friendships that last. Scientists may now have some insight into why this happens. A study published in Nature Human Behaviour found that participants who responded similarly to the same movie clips even before meeting were more likely to become friends later.

As part of the experiment, MRI brain scans were taken of 41 graduate students who had never met each other before, while they were shown clips of movies based on science, food, sports, environment, and .

A total of 214 were analyzed—200 cortical regions associated with functions, such as movement, perception, and sensory processing, and 14 subcortical regions that control movement, autonomic functions, and emotions.

Effects of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Studio Ghibli Films on Young People’s Sense of Exploration, Calm, Mastery and Skill, Purpose and Meaning, and Overall Happiness in Life: Exploratory Randomized Controlled Study

Background: Young people feel increasingly anxious and sad nowadays. Engaging with works of art and entertainment, such as playing open-world games or watching Studio Ghibli films, can be more than just a pastime. However, the extent to which, if at all, open-world games and feelings of nostalgia affect overall happiness in life remains unclear.

Objective: This study aimed to examine the extent to which open-world games, such as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and nostalgia evoked by Studio Ghibli films, such as Hayao Miyazaki’s My Neighbor Totoro or Kiki’s Delivery Service, affect postgraduate students’ sense of exploration, calm, mastery and skill, purpose and meaning, and, ultimately, happiness in life.

Methods: A controlled laboratory experiment was conducted using a 2 (playing an open-world game vs no open-world game) × 2 (nostalgia vs no nostalgia) between-subject design. Study participants (N=518) were randomly assigned to the study’s 4 conditions and answered a brief questionnaire, examining their sense of exploration, calm, mastery and skill, purpose and meaning, and, ultimately, happiness in life. As part of the study, we conducted univariate analysis and bootstrapping-based moderated mediation analysis with 5,000 resamples.

Falling water forms beautiful fluted films

When water drains from the bottom of a vertical tube, it is followed by a thin film of liquid that can adopt complex and beautiful shapes. KAUST researchers have now studied exactly how these “fluted films” form and break up, developing a mathematical model of their behavior that could help improve the performance, safety, and efficiency of industrial processes.

Cost-effective method developed for high-entropy alloy film production

A collaborative research team has developed a novel method for forming high-performance high-entropy alloy (HEA) films on various surfaces without using expensive alloy targets. This was achieved using a proprietary rotating target composed of multiple pure metal segments and pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technology.

This method uniquely enables not only the deposition of metal atoms onto the substrate surface through laser irradiation but also their implantation into the subsurface, forming robust films that integrate with the substrate material.

Traditionally, producing HEA requires expensive pre-made alloy targets. In contrast, the new method uses inexpensive pure metals, significantly reducing costs. The team also demonstrated precise control of film thickness and depth by adjusting the pressure during deposition.

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