- Flash flooding kills three in northern Thailand
- Kaur leads India to victory over Pakistan in Women's T20 World Cup
- Juventus held by Cagliari after late penalty drama
- In France's Marseille, teen 'stabbed 50 times' then burned alive
- Ruthless Gauff beats Muchova in straight sets to win China Open
- India restrict Pakistan to 105-8 in Women's T20 World Cup
- England target repeat of Pakistan Test whitewash
- Penrith Panthers win fourth straight NRL title after downing Storm
- Weary Sinner happy for day off after battling into Shanghai last 16
- Pakistan's Masood warns England still a force without Stokes
- Madrid's Carvajal to miss several months after serious knee injury
- Two elephants die in flash flooding in northern Thailand
- Sabalenka targets world number one and Wuhan hat-trick
- Tunisia votes with Saied set for re-election
- Bagnaia sets 'example' with Japan MotoGP win to cut gap on Martin
- Intense Israeli bombing rocks Beirut ahead of war anniversary
- Mozambique vote: no suspense but some disillusion
- Austrian rapper channels anti-racist rage in Romani hip-hop songs
- Ohtani magic powers Dodgers over Padres in MLB playoff thriller
- Five of the best: Pakistan-England Test thrillers
- Man sets arm on fire as marches across US mark Gaza war anniversary
- Vietnam's young coffee entrepreneurs brew up a revolution
- Trump rallies at site of failed assassination: 'Never quit'
- Too hot by day, Dubai's floodlit beaches are packed at night
- Is music finally reckoning with #MeToo?
- Fans hail Trump's 'guts' as he returns to site of rally shooting
- Lebanon state media says Israeli strikes hit south Beirut
- Miami on track for MLS record points after win in Toronto
- Monaco take top spot in Ligue 1 with win at Rennes
- Madrid beat Villarreal to level Liga leaders Barca
- Thuram treble fires Inter past Torino and up to second
- 'Fight': defiant Trump jets in to site of rally shooting
- Mexico City's new mayor sworn in with pledges on water, housing
- Israel on alert ahead of Hamas attack anniversary
- Guardians maul Tigers in MLB playoff series opener
- Macron criticises Israel on Gaza, Lebanon operations
- French rugby player whistled but 'serene' on return amid ongoing rape case
- Retegui hat-trick fires five-star Atalanta to hammering of Genoa
- Heavyweights Australia, England off to World Cup winning starts
- Visiting UN refugee agency chief decries 'terrible crisis' in Lebanon
- Spinners come to party as England defeat Bangladesh at T20 World Cup
- Search continues for missing in deadly Bosnia floods
- Man City sink Fulham to get title bid back on track
- France's Auradou whistled on Pau return in Perpignan loss amid ongoing rape case
- A 'forgotten' valley in storm-hit North Carolina, desperate for help
- Arsenal hit back in style after Southampton scare
- Hezbollah heir apparent Safieddine out of contact after strikes
- Liverpool stay top of Premier League as Arsenal, Man City win
- In dank Tour of Emilia, Pogacar shines in rainbow jersey
- DR Congo launches mpox vaccination drive, hoping to curb outbreak
Takashi Murakami loves and fears AI
Neo-pop art superstar Takashi Murakami has always embraced new technology and was an early adopter of crypto and NFTs, but even he admits fearing that AI might make him obsolete.
Murakami, 61, has become a brand unto himself thanks to his loveable technicolour paintings that mix traditional Japanese art motifs with modern anime and manga.
His paintings have sold for millions of dollars, led to fashion collaborations with Louis Vuitton and Kanye West, and been shown at some of the world's great institutions, prized as insightful commentary on the fine line between art and commerce.
It has not always made him popular with Japan's art establishment, but Murakami likes being a disruptor.
He sees another wave of change coming thanks to AI-powered software.
"The generational change will be dramatic," he told AFP at the opening of a new exhibition at the Gagosian gallery on the outskirts of Paris.
It reminds him of the arrival of the Apple II computer in the 1980s that swept away an older generation of design professionals, but empowered those who embraced it.
"AI will certainly do damage to technical trades but I don't think it will be able to block our ideas," he said.
"The wackiest ideas, those that even AI cannot generate, will become even more valuable."
That does mean power perhaps shifting from artists to tech engineers, who will be able to explore things that are hard to imagine at the moment.
"Artists who create familiar things will be left behind," he said.
"I myself work with a certain kind of fear of one day being replaced."
- 'Not very appreciated' -
Ironically, Murakami says he was touched to finally receive some praise from a more traditional part of Japanese society with his recent work in homage to Kabuki theatre.
He spoke to AFP in front of an enormous 23-metres-long by 5-metres-high fresco that tells a Kabuki narrative in his dazzling, cartoonish style.
"I'm not very appreciated in Japan," he said, wearing Bermuda shorts and a jacket adorned with his famous smiling flowers.
"My reputation is fairly bad because I'm seen as presenting a false image of Japanese culture to the rest of the world.
"This is the first time I was welcomed in this way in Japan. I was very pleased."
- 'A new continent' -
Nonetheless, his commitment to technological change is clear.
Visitors to Saturday's gallery opening -- requiring some dedication since it was hidden away among the private jet hangars near Charles de Gaulle airport -- were set to receive an NFT of a flower-adorned virtual coin.
The show includes a wall of NFT-style pixelated portraits that draw a line from Karl Marx and Adam Smith to current tech honchos Vitalik Buterin and Elon Musk.
Like all his work, they are deceptively simple, seemingly printed, yet in fact painstakingly painted by hand and then lacquered to remove any sign of human involvement and create his renowned "Superflat" aesthetic.
He sees this work as building a bridge between traditional and digital art, but admits they can be a hard sell.
"Collectors who have been fans of mine for a long time clearly have some trouble with these pixelated drawings," he said.
"But I created my works following Japanese or Eastern styles, not Western, and I consider pixel art to be a sort of representation of Japanese culture from the video games of the 1970s."
The world of crypto is "like a new continent" still being discovered.
"It will take several more years for people to get used to it," he said.
R.J.Fidalgo--PC