Nintendo Hikes Switch Forecast as Hardware Release Expectations Rise 

This photo taken on January 12, 2024 shows a young customer looking at a display for Super Mario by the Japanese gaming company Nintendo, at an electronics store in Tokyo. (AFP)
This photo taken on January 12, 2024 shows a young customer looking at a display for Super Mario by the Japanese gaming company Nintendo, at an electronics store in Tokyo. (AFP)
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Nintendo Hikes Switch Forecast as Hardware Release Expectations Rise 

This photo taken on January 12, 2024 shows a young customer looking at a display for Super Mario by the Japanese gaming company Nintendo, at an electronics store in Tokyo. (AFP)
This photo taken on January 12, 2024 shows a young customer looking at a display for Super Mario by the Japanese gaming company Nintendo, at an electronics store in Tokyo. (AFP)

Nintendo on Tuesday raised its full-year Switch sales forecast to 15.5 million units from 15 million units previously, as the company squeezed sales out of the aging console over the year-end shopping season.

With the hybrid home-portable Switch nearing its eighth year on the market, expectations are rising that Nintendo will release new hardware this year.

"We want to maintain the momentum of the Switch business," Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa told an earnings briefing.

The Kyoto-based gaming company sold 13.74 million Switch units in the first nine months of the financial year, an 8% decline on the same period a year earlier.

The lifecycle of the Switch has been extended by a string of hits such as "The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom", which launched last May, and "Super Mario Bros. Wonder", which went on sale in October and has sold more than 10 million units.

The Switch, whose iterations include the handheld only Switch Lite and a version with an OLED display, followed the poorly performing Wii U and has total sales second only to the Nintendo DS handheld after passing the Wii.

Nintendo shares closed down 0.5% ahead of earnings and have gained 14% year-to-date.



SDAIA, KAUST Launch MiniGPT-Med Model to Help Doctors Diagnose Medical Radiology through AI

SDAIA, KAUST Launch MiniGPT-Med Model to Help Doctors Diagnose Medical Radiology through AI
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SDAIA, KAUST Launch MiniGPT-Med Model to Help Doctors Diagnose Medical Radiology through AI

SDAIA, KAUST Launch MiniGPT-Med Model to Help Doctors Diagnose Medical Radiology through AI

The Center of Excellence for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence at the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) have introduced the MiniGPT-Med model.

The large multi-modal language model is designed to help doctors quickly and accurately diagnose medical radiology using artificial intelligence techniques.

Dr. Ahmed Alsinan, the Artificial Intelligence Advisor at the National Center for Artificial Intelligence and head of the scientific team at SDAIA, explained that the MiniGPT-Med model is capable of performing various tasks such as generating medical reports, answering medical visual questions, describing diseases, locating diseases, identifying diseases, and documenting medical descriptions based on entered medical images.

The model was trained on different medical images, including X-rays, CT scans, and MRIs.

The MiniGPT-Med model, derived from large-scale language models, is specifically tailored for medical applications and demonstrates significant versatility across different imaging methods, including X-rays, CT scans, and MRI. This enhances its utility in medical diagnosis.

Dr. Alsinan highlighted that the MiniGPT-Med model was developed collaboratively by artificial intelligence specialists from SDAIA and KAUST.

The model exhibits advanced performance in generating medical reports, achieving 19% higher efficiency than previous models. It serves as a general interface for radiology diagnosis, enhancing diagnostic efficiency across various medical imaging applications.