KAWASAKI, Japan (AP) — Seafood lovers know the fatty marbling is what makes tuna sashimi and sushi so tasty, so for the industry, it's the fish's level of fattiness that's used to judge its quality and pricing.
Usually, several people assess how fatty a tuna is by cutting the tail with a giant saw-like knife, an operation that takes about 60 seconds per fish.
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From left, Hideto Okada, a Fujitsu official in charge of AI, Hisashi Ishida, the head of startup Sonofai and Ishida Tec, and Keiichi Goto, professor at Tokai University pose in front of a machine called Sonofai, at a Fujitsu facility in Kawasaki, Japan Wednesday, April 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Yuri Kageyama)
A stall sells tuna sushi sets at Tsukiji market in Tokyo Thursday, April 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Ayaka McGill)
From left, Hideto Okada, a Fujitsu official in charge of AI, Hisashi Ishida, the head of startup Sonofai and Ishida Tec, and Keiichi Goto, professor at Tokai University pose in front of a machine called Sonofai, at a Fujitsu facility in Kawasaki, Japan Wednesday, April 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Yuri Kageyama)
Customers look to buy tuna sushi meals at a market in Tokyo, Japan, Thursday, April 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Ayaka McGill)
Sushi chef Junichi Kurita demonstrates how the fatty tuna looks different from the leaner kind, and serves it with soy sauce and wasabi relish to reporters April 9, 2025 at a Fujitsu facility in Kawasaki, outside Tokyo. (AP Photo/Yuri Kageyama)
The special machine shown by Fujitsu relays the results of the sound waves beamed on a tuna fish to assess its fattiness shows up on the screen at a Fujitsu facility in Kawasaki, Japan Wednesday, April 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Yuri Kageyama)
Tuna goes into a special machine called Sonofai that can detect the amount of fattiness in the fish meat by using ultrasound, sensors and AI at a Fujitsu facility in Kawasaki, Japan Wednesday, April 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Yuri Kageyama)
A knife cuts into a fatty cut of tuna at a market in Tokyo Thursday, April 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Ayaka McGill)
A display shows tuna sushi sets being sold at a market stall in Tokyo, Japan, Thursday, April 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Ayaka McGill)
But now a machine called Sonofai uses ultrasound waves to do the job in 12 seconds, operated by a person without prior knowledge of how to carve fish.
Fujitsu, the Japanese company behind the technology, invited reporters this week for a demonstration of Sonofai, a word blended from “sono” referring to “sound,” “f” for Fujitsu, and “ai,” or artificial intelligence. The name refers to its components but also stands for “son of AI.”
A conveyor belt transports a whole frozen tuna fish, about a meter (3 feet) in size, into a machine that beams ultrasound waves. Sensors pick up the waves to draw a zigzagging diagram on a screen to indicate the fish’s fattiness.
Fatty meat absorbs fewer sound waves than lean meat and AI sorts real data from misleading “noise,” or irregularities.
Hisashi Ishida, president of Sonofai, the startup behind the technology, who also heads Ishida Tec Co., which makes food-manufacturing equipment, says it’s safer, more sanitary and efficient.
“Fatty fish tastes good, feels better on your tongue and is called ‘toro,’ ” he said. “Overseas needs are growing because sushi culture is now appreciated around the world.”
Beef has a grading system for fat and expected flavor, but being able to gauge the quality of tuna is new, according to Hideto Okada, who oversees AI at Fujitsu.
Sonofai uses the same technology as medical ultrasound scans where high-frequency inaudible sound waves are absorbed or bounced back to create video-like images of things that aren’t visible, like a fetus inside a mother’s womb. Unlike the CT scan or X-ray, it doesn’t use radiation, which can harm tissue.
Chris Edwards, a medical doctor and professor at Queensland University of Technology, who trains sonographers, or health-care professionals who specialize in ultrasound, has studied how ultrasound can be used to see the fattiness of a human liver, linked to diabetes and other health problems.
“They can look at one fish and compare it to another and say ‘Oh, that one’s definitely got more fat than that one,’” he told The Associated Press in an interview.
But Sonofai won't be at your neighborhood sushi chef.
Fish-processing outfits and fishing organizations are the likely buyers. The machine is set to go on sale in June for about 30 million yen ($207,000) each, at first in Japan but expanding to the U.S. and other places later. They'll also work on future upgrades to test for freshness, firmness and other characteristics of tuna and other fish varieties.
Yuri Kageyama is on Threads: https://www.threads.net/@yurikageyama
A stall sells tuna sushi sets at Tsukiji market in Tokyo Thursday, April 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Ayaka McGill)
From left, Hideto Okada, a Fujitsu official in charge of AI, Hisashi Ishida, the head of startup Sonofai and Ishida Tec, and Keiichi Goto, professor at Tokai University pose in front of a machine called Sonofai, at a Fujitsu facility in Kawasaki, Japan Wednesday, April 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Yuri Kageyama)
Customers look to buy tuna sushi meals at a market in Tokyo, Japan, Thursday, April 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Ayaka McGill)
Sushi chef Junichi Kurita demonstrates how the fatty tuna looks different from the leaner kind, and serves it with soy sauce and wasabi relish to reporters April 9, 2025 at a Fujitsu facility in Kawasaki, outside Tokyo. (AP Photo/Yuri Kageyama)
The special machine shown by Fujitsu relays the results of the sound waves beamed on a tuna fish to assess its fattiness shows up on the screen at a Fujitsu facility in Kawasaki, Japan Wednesday, April 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Yuri Kageyama)
Tuna goes into a special machine called Sonofai that can detect the amount of fattiness in the fish meat by using ultrasound, sensors and AI at a Fujitsu facility in Kawasaki, Japan Wednesday, April 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Yuri Kageyama)
A knife cuts into a fatty cut of tuna at a market in Tokyo Thursday, April 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Ayaka McGill)
A display shows tuna sushi sets being sold at a market stall in Tokyo, Japan, Thursday, April 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Ayaka McGill)
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — President Donald Trump offered some encouraging words and advice for graduating students at the University of Alabama on Thursday in a speech interspersed with impressions of transgender weightlifters, accusations that judges were interfering with his agenda and attacks on his predecessor, Joe Biden.
The Republican’s jolting speech was standard fare for Trump and well-received by the crowd in deep-red Alabama, which backed him in all three of his presidential runs.
“You’re the first graduating class of the golden age of America,” the president told the graduates.
But he quickly launched into a campaign-style diatribe, saying that the U.S. was being “ripped off” before he took office and that the last four years, when he was out of power, “were not good for our country.”
“But don’t let that scare you,” he said. “It was an aberration.”
The president of the University of Alabama, Stuart Bell, told graduates before Trump took the stage that Thursday night’s event was all about them.
“This special ceremony offers a meaningful opportunity for you, for I, to reflect on the important connection between academic inquiry, civic leadership, and public service,” Bell said.
Trump mostly went in a different direction.
He did a grunting impression of a female weightlifter as he criticized the participation of transgender women in sports. He bragged about how tech moguls have warmed up to him, saying, “They all hated me in my first term, and now they’re kissing my ass.”
And he falsely claimed that the 2020 election, which he lost, was “rigged.”
But after talking up his tariff plans, sharing his successes from his first 100 days in office and bashing the media, Trump turned back to the graduates, offering 10 pieces of advice drawn from his life and career, such as “Think of yourself as a winner,” “Be an original” and “Never, ever give up.”
He told them they were never too young to be successful and described how he worked on his first hotel development deal in his 20s.
“Now is the time to work harder than you’ve ever worked before,” he said. “Find your limits and then smash through everything.”
Although Trump described the speech as a commencement address, it is actually a special event that was created before graduation ceremonies that begin Friday. Graduating students had the option of attending the event.
Former Crimson Tide football coach Nick Saban also spoke, regaling the audience with a story about visiting the Oval Office in 2018 during Trump's first term. Saban said Trump was a gracious host.
In his remarks Thursday, Trump noted that he was marking his 100th day in office and touted the plummeting levels of arrests at the southern U.S. border as evidence that his immigration policies were working. But he accused the courts of trying to stop him from fulfilling the promises he made on the campaign trail.
“Judges are interfering, supposedly based on due process,” he said. “But how can you give due process to people who came into our country illegally?”
Trump has a long history of injecting such rhetoric into his remarks at venues where traditional political talk was seen as unseemly.
On his first full day in office in 2017, he used a speech at a memorial for fallen CIA agents to complain about journalists and defend the size of his crowd at the inauguration. Later that year, he drew backlash for talking about politics at a Boy Scouts gathering. And earlier this year, he delivered a grievance-filled speech at the Justice Department where he threatened to “expose” his enemies.
Ahead of Trump's arrival, Emily Appel, a 22-year-old advertising major from Norcross, Georgia, called Trump's appearance at her school “a cherry on top” of her college years.
She said she hoped he had a message to share that was "positive about us being able to work in the real world and for our future.”
Sophie Best, who is graduating with a communications degree, said, “I don’t think that we could have had a greater person come to speak."
The 21-year-old from Cartersville, Georgia, said she attended Trump's first presidential inauguration in 2017 when she was a freshman in high school, along with her father, who she said loves Trump.
“I think that no matter what political party or whatever you believe in, I think that it’s super cool that we get to experience and make history and be a part of this,” she said.
At a park a mile away, hundreds of people gathered at a counter-rally hosted by College Democrats. One-time presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke of Texas and former U.S. Sen. Doug Jones, the last Democrat to hold statewide office in Alabama, addressed the attendees at their event, called a “Tide Against Trump” — a play on the university’s nickname.
Aidan Meyers, a 21-year-old junior studying biology at the university, said he was upset by the decision to let Trump speak at a graduation-related event.
“I felt betrayed that the university was willing to put up with someone who has made it clear that they hate academia, essentially holding funding above universities' heads as a bargaining chip, unless they bow down to what he wants, which is kind of a hallmark sign with fascist regime,” Meyers said.
O'Rourke told the rally that Trump was trying to make the students’ graduation “all about him, true to form.” He urged students and others gathered to go out and use their voices to “win America back.”
“The power of people works in this country, even against Donald Trump,” O’Rourke said.
Jones told the crowd they were there “not just as a protest, but as a movement.”
“You are here today because you’re concerned, you’re afraid. You understand that this country’s great democracy is teetering right now with what we’re seeing going on,” the former senator said.
Trump’s presence also drew criticism from the Alabama NAACP, which said his policies are hurting universities and students, particularly students of color.
After his stop in Alabama, Trump is scheduled to travel to Florida for a long weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
Later this month, he is scheduled to give the commencement address at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York.
Associated Press writers Bill Barrow in Atlanta and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.
Former presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke of Texas speaks next to former U.S. Sen. Doug Jones of Alabama at a rally called "Tide Against Trump" in Tuscaloosa, Ala., held in opposition to President Donald Trump's appearance on campus on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Kimberly Chandler)
Former presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke of Texas speaks at a rally called "Tide Against Trump" in Tuscaloosa, Ala., held in opposition to President Donald Trump's appearance on campus on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Kimberly Chandler)
Nick Saban speaks before President Donald Trump arrives to give a commencement address at the University of Alabama, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
President Donald Trump gives a commencement address at the University of Alabama, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Nick Saban speaks before President Donald Trump arrives to give a commencement address at the University of Alabama, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
President Donald Trump arrives to give a commencement address at the University of Alabama, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
President Donald Trump arrives to give a commencement address at the University of Alabama, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
President Donald Trump arrives to give a commencement address at the University of Alabama, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Tuscaloosa, Ala.(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
President Donald Trump dances after giving a commencement address at the University of Alabama, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
President Donald Trump gives a commencement address at the University of Alabama, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
President Donald Trump yells after giving a commencement address at the University of Alabama, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
President Donald Trump talks about transgender weightlifters as gives a commencement address at the University of Alabama, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
President Donald Trump gestures after giving a commencement address at the University of Alabama, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
President Donald Trump arrives at Tuscaloosa National Airport, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
President Donald Trump arrives at Tuscaloosa National Airport, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
University of Alabama president Stuart Bell speaks before President Donald Trump arrives to give a commencement address at the University of Alabama, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
President Donald Trump arrives at Tuscaloosa National Airport, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
President Donald Trump walks with Air Force Col. Angela Ochoa, Commander of the 89th Airlift Wing from Marine One to board Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, Md., en route Tuscaloosa National Airport, Thursday, May 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
