AI Tool Aims to Help Conserve Japan’s Cherry Trees 

Formula One F1 - Japanese Grand Prix - Suzuka Circuit, Suzuka, Japan - April 4, 2025 Red Bull's Max Verstappen is seen through cherry blossoms during practice. (Reuters)
Formula One F1 - Japanese Grand Prix - Suzuka Circuit, Suzuka, Japan - April 4, 2025 Red Bull's Max Verstappen is seen through cherry blossoms during practice. (Reuters)
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AI Tool Aims to Help Conserve Japan’s Cherry Trees 

Formula One F1 - Japanese Grand Prix - Suzuka Circuit, Suzuka, Japan - April 4, 2025 Red Bull's Max Verstappen is seen through cherry blossoms during practice. (Reuters)
Formula One F1 - Japanese Grand Prix - Suzuka Circuit, Suzuka, Japan - April 4, 2025 Red Bull's Max Verstappen is seen through cherry blossoms during practice. (Reuters)

Japan's famed cherry trees are getting old, but a new AI tool that assesses photos of the delicate pink and white flowers could help preserve them for future generations.

The "sakura" season is feverishly anticipated by locals and visitors alike, with the profusion of the stunning blossoms marking the start of spring.

But many of the trees are reaching 70 to 80 years old, well beyond their prime blooming age.

This means increasing costs to tend to the trees and maintain popular flowering spots.

To help authorities identify ailing specimens, brewing giant Kirin developed a tool called Sakura AI Camera.

It tells users the condition and the age of the trees based on photos they take with their smartphones and upload them to a website.

A five-point scale -- only available in Japanese for now -- ranges from "very healthy" to "worrying".

A tree with healthy flowers blooming densely all the way to the tips of the branches gets top marks.

The artificial intelligence tool has been trained using 5,000 images of cherry trees with the help of experts.

The photos are then mapped on the Sakura AI Camera website with details such as tree condition and location.

"We heard that the preservation of sakura requires manpower and money and that it's difficult to gather information," Risa Shioda from Kirin told AFP.

"I think we can contribute by making it easier to plan for conservation," she said.

About 20,000 photos have been collected since the launch last month, with the data available online for free for local authorities.

- Worth a million -

According to Tokyo's Meguro Ward, famous for its riverbanks lined with cherry trees, replanting a new one costs around one million yen ($6,800).

Hiroyuki Wada of the Japan Tree Doctors Association, who inspects cherry trees in major spots in Tokyo, helped supervise the AI tool.

He said he hopes that it will help experts study the environmental reasons behind the degradation of some of the trees he sees.

In part, he blames climate change.

"I'm very worried. Changes in the environment are usually gradual, but now it's visible," he told AFP.

"There are impacts from the heat, and of course the lack of rainfall," he said.

"The age of the trees naturally makes the situation more serious," he added.

Japan's weather agency said in January that last year was the hottest since records began, like other nations.

Kirin began donating some of its profits for the preservation of cherry trees last year, as a way to "pay back" to the communities.

Cherry blossoms symbolize the fragility of life in Japanese culture as full blooms only last about a week before the petals start falling off trees.

The season is also considered one of change as it marks the start of the new business year, with many university graduates starting their first full-time jobs and older colleagues shifting to new positions.



Google Hires Windsurf Execs in $2.4 Billion Deal to Advance AI Coding Ambitions

FILE PHOTO: A Google logo is seen at a company research facility in Mountain View, California, US, May 13, 2025. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A Google logo is seen at a company research facility in Mountain View, California, US, May 13, 2025. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo
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Google Hires Windsurf Execs in $2.4 Billion Deal to Advance AI Coding Ambitions

FILE PHOTO: A Google logo is seen at a company research facility in Mountain View, California, US, May 13, 2025. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A Google logo is seen at a company research facility in Mountain View, California, US, May 13, 2025. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo

Alphabet's Google has hired several key staff members from AI code generation startup Windsurf, the companies announced on Friday, in a surprise move following an attempt by its rival OpenAI to acquire the startup.

Google is paying $2.4 billion in license fees as part of the deal to use some of Windsurf's technology under non-exclusive terms, according to a person familiar with the arrangement. Google will not take a stake or any controlling interest in Windsurf, the person added.

Windsurf CEO Varun Mohan, co-founder Douglas Chen, and some members of the coding tool's research and development team will join Google's DeepMind AI division, Reuters reported.

The deal followed months of discussions Windsurf was having with OpenAI to sell itself in a deal that could value it at $3 billion, highlighting the interest in the code-generation space which has emerged as one of the fastest-growing AI applications, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters in June.

OpenAI could not be immediately reached for a comment.

The former Windsurf team will focus on agentic coding initiatives at Google DeepMind, primarily working on the Gemini project.

"We're excited to welcome some top AI coding talent from Windsurf's team to Google DeepMind to advance our work in agentic coding," Google said in a statement.

The unusual deal structure marks a win for backers for Windsurf, which has raised $243 million from investors including Kleiner Perkins, Greenoaks and General Catalyst, and was last valued at $1.25 billion one year ago, according to PitchBook.

Windsurf investors will receive liquidity through the license fee and retain their stakes in the company, sources told Reuters.

'ACQUIHIRE' DEALS

Google's surprise swoop mirrors its deal in August 2024 to hire key employees from chatbot startup Character.AI.

Big Tech peers, including Microsoft, Amazon and Meta, have similarly taken to these so-called acquihire deals, which some have criticized as an attempt to evade regulatory scrutiny.

Microsoft struck a $650 million deal with Inflection AI in March 2024, to use the AI startup's models and hire its staff, while Amazon hired AI firm Adept's co-founders and some of its team last June.

Meta took a 49% stake in Scale AI in June in the biggest test yet of this increasing form of business partnerships.

Unlike acquisitions that would give the buyer a controlling stake, these deals do not require a review by US antitrust regulators. However, they could probe the deal if they believe it was structured to avoid those requirements or harm competition. Many of the deals have since become the subject of regulatory probes.

The development comes as tech giants, including Alphabet and Meta, aggressively chase high-profile acquisitions and offer multi-million-dollar pay packages to attract top talent in the race to lead the next wave of AI.

Windsurf's head of business, Jeff Wang, has been appointed its interim CEO, and Graham Moreno, vice president of global sales, will be president, effective immediately.

The majority of Windsurf's roughly 250 employees will remain with the company, which has announced plans to prioritize innovation for its enterprise clients.