A shrinking population means Japan has a shortage of workers. Many are hoping that artificial intelligence (AI) can pick up the slack.
In a country that is known to be obsessed with perfection, damaged or misshapen vegetables and fruits are hard to sell.
And if you are a specialist maker of Japanese dumplings, like the brand Osaka Ohsho, then selling a packet of gyoza with some damaged is a big no-no.
But as demand surged during the pandemic, its parent firm, Eat&Holdings, simply didn’t have enough manpower to check every single dumpling, or keep up with demand.
So it turned to technology for an answer. In January 2023, it opened a high-tech factory equipped with AI-powered cameras trained to detect any faulty gyoza on the production lines.
