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Japanese Company Develops Robotic Cat that Nibbles User’s Fingertip

In this Jan. 10, 2018 photo, Yukai Engineering's Tsubasa Tominaga demonstrates Qoobo, a cushion robot, at his office in Tokyo. (AP)
In this Jan. 10, 2018 photo, Yukai Engineering's Tsubasa Tominaga demonstrates Qoobo, a cushion robot, at his office in Tokyo. (AP)
    Tokyo, London - Asharq Al-Awsat
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Japanese Company Develops Robotic Cat that Nibbles User’s Fingertip

In this Jan. 10, 2018 photo, Yukai Engineering's Tsubasa Tominaga demonstrates Qoobo, a cushion robot, at his office in Tokyo. (AP)
In this Jan. 10, 2018 photo, Yukai Engineering's Tsubasa Tominaga demonstrates Qoobo, a cushion robot, at his office in Tokyo. (AP)

Yukai Engineering, the maker of the Qoobo robotic cat, has revealed a new soft robot that nibbles on a user’s fingertip.

The company hopes the “somewhat pleasing sensation” will brighten up your day, reported the German news aAgency.

According to the TechCrunch website, the new toy, named “Amagami Ham Ham,” has an algorithm called a “Hamgorithm” that selects one of two dozen nibbling patterns, so you’ll never be sure exactly what you’ll feel when you shove your digit into the robot’s maw.

Yukai designed the patterns to replicate the feeling of a baby or pet nibbling on one’s finger.

“Amagami” means “soft biting” and “ham” means “bite” in Japanese. Yukai based the look of the robot on a character from Liv Heart Corporation’s Nemu Nemu stuffed animal series.

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Alibaba Launches Open-Source AI Coding Model, Touted as Its Most Advanced to Date 

A man walks past the Alibaba logo displayed at its booth during the China International Supply Chain Expo in Beijing, China July 16, 2025. (Reuters)
A man walks past the Alibaba logo displayed at its booth during the China International Supply Chain Expo in Beijing, China July 16, 2025. (Reuters)
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Alibaba Launches Open-Source AI Coding Model, Touted as Its Most Advanced to Date 

A man walks past the Alibaba logo displayed at its booth during the China International Supply Chain Expo in Beijing, China July 16, 2025. (Reuters)
A man walks past the Alibaba logo displayed at its booth during the China International Supply Chain Expo in Beijing, China July 16, 2025. (Reuters)

Alibaba Group announced on Wednesday the launch of Qwen3-Coder, an open-source artificial intelligence model for software development that the Chinese e-commerce giant described as its most advanced coding tool to date.

The launch comes amid intensifying competition among Chinese technology companies in the global AI development race, with firms on both sides of the Pacific releasing increasingly sophisticated models. Qwen3-Coder is designed for software development tasks such as code generation and managing complex coding workflows, Alibaba said in a statement.

The company positioned the model as particularly strong in "agentic AI coding tasks" - automated processes where AI systems can work independently on programming challenges.

According to performance data released by Alibaba, Qwen3-Coder outperformed domestic competitors, including models from DeepSeek and Moonshot AI's K2 in key coding capabilities.

The company also claimed its model matched the performance of leading US models, including Anthropic's Claude and OpenAI's GPT-4 in certain areas.