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Home > The Japan Podcast Network Master Feed > 81: Japan’s Laundry Folding Robot Is Taking Over Your Closet – Seven Dreamers
Podcast: The Japan Podcast Network Master Feed
Episode:

81: Japan’s Laundry Folding Robot Is Taking Over Your Closet – Seven Dreamers
Category: Society & Culture
Duration: 00:52:08
Publish Date: 2017-04-10 20:06:55
Description:

The episode 81: Japan’s Laundry Folding Robot Is Taking Over Your Closet – Seven Dreamers  appeared first on DisruptingJapan.com.

It’s often surprising to discover which problems are hard for AI. We hear stories about artificial intelligence being better than the most skilled humans at go, chess, Jeopardy, and better than many at driving a car, and we assume that computers will be as smart as we are very soon.

Then we discover how hard it is for AI to fold the laundry.

Shin Sakane and his team at Seven Dreamers have been working on this particular problem for 12 years, and they are now rolling out the first commercially available laundry-folding robot. They will be first to the global market and have secured a production partnership with Panasonic.

Shin and I talk a lot about AI and innovation in Japan, and also cover his rather unusual corse to innovation here. Seven Dreamers is not your typical venture-backed startup, and they might just provide a blueprint for innovation that many existing Japanese firms can follow.

It’s a great interview, and I think you’ll enjoy it.

Show Notes for Startups

  • Why AI can drive a car but not fold socks
  • Why starting a company in Japan is different today
  • Shin’s formula  for developing innovative products
  • How to work with large Japanese companies
  • Why the future of laundry is more disrupting than you imagine
  • Why big data wants to hack your washing machine
  • The need to go global quickly
  • Can Japan once again lead the world in AI

Links from the Founder

Transcript from Japan

Disrupting Japan, episode 81.

Welcome to Disrupting Japan, straight talk from Japan’s most successful entrepreneurs. I’m Tim Romero and thanks for joining me.
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