{"rewrite":{"id":"r_b95b75579d2a2fd5c3f7a4aa","clusterId":"c_61013bd433ec106b95016ee6","slug":"merge-2026-draws-over-300-to-nishi-shinjuku-for-ai-era-manufacturing","model":"deepseek-v4-1-flash","headline":"MERGE 2026 Draws Over 300 To Nishi-Shinjuku For AI-Era Manufacturing","summary":"PROTOCORE and GustoDevelopment held MERGE 2026, a conference on AI-driven development and design, on Saturday, August 8, 2026, at Sakura Internet's Nishi-Shinjuku office in Tokyo and online. More than 300 engineers, designers, entrepreneurs, and business developers attended. The program ran five sessions on design, agent-driven development, 0 to 1 business building, UI/UX in 2050, and AI new-business launch, plus finals and awards for the AI Designathon 2026 hackathon.","whyItMatters":"The turnout and the session list show the current center of gravity in Japanese AI talks has moved from model demos to the parts of product work that models do not settle on their own: interface design, 0 to 1 scoping, and the handoff between human and agent.","webCardHtml":"\u003cp\u003eThe conference ran in a single day, split between Sakura Internet\u0026#39;s Nishi-Shinjuku office and an online stream, and drew engineers, designers, entrepreneurs, and business developers rather than a specialist crowd. PROTOCORE CEO Rei Sonoda and GustoDevelopment organized it around AI-driven development and design.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFive sessions carried the day. They covered the lowering barrier to implementation, agent-driven development from requirements to testing, how AI changes 0 to 1 business building, interface design past the screen, and the path from AI business concept to deployment. The AI Designathon 2026 finals and awards closed the program.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSession 1: Democratization of \u0026#39;Making\u0026#39;\u003c/strong\u003e: on the shifting boundary between professionals and non-experts and the role of UI/UX and design\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSession 2: Agent-Driven Development\u003c/strong\u003e: on development processes where AI handles requirements, implementation, and testing alongside humans\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSession 3: Redefining 0 to 1\u003c/strong\u003e: on how cheaper, faster MVP development changes 0 to 1 business building\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSession 4: UI/UX in 2050\u003c/strong\u003e: on human-technology relationships and experience design beyond screen-centric interfaces\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSession 5: The Frontline of AI x New Business Launch\u003c/strong\u003e: on taking AI-powered businesses past the conceptual stage into society\u003c/li\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAI Designathon 2026 finals and awards\u003c/strong\u003e: hackathon final presentations and awards held at the event\u003c/li\u003e\u003c/ul\u003e","blueskyPost":"MERGE 2026's program splits between design sessions and agent-driven development, the same split AI-era teams now argue over: how much of the build gets handed to the agent before the designer loses the thread.","twitterPost":"MERGE 2026 pairs design sessions with agent-driven development on one program, a working bet that the two no longer separate cleanly.","threadsPost":"MERGE 2026 put design and agent-driven development on the same five-session program. That pairing is the claim: in AI-era development the agent writes the build, so the designer's remaining leverage is deciding what the agent is asked to build.","newsletterBlurb":"PROTOCORE and GustoDevelopment held MERGE 2026 on August 8 at Sakura Internet's Nishi-Shinjuku office in Tokyo and online, drawing over 300 engineers, designers, entrepreneurs, and business developers. Five sessions covered design, agent-driven development, 0 to 1 business building, UI/UX in 2050, and AI new-business launch. The AI Designathon 2026 finals and awards closed the program.","attributionJson":"[{\"source\":\"ASCII.jp\",\"url\":\"https://ascii.jp/elem/000/004/442/4442442/?rss\",\"title\":\"Over 300 Attend 'MERGE 2026,' an Event on Manufacturing in the AI Era Where 'You Can Build Fast'\"}]","lintFlagsJson":null,"lintHits":0,"costUsd":0,"inputTokens":4677,"outputTokens":874,"status":"published","repairAttempts":0,"nextRepairAt":null,"factsAttemptedAt":1791958029,"createdAt":"2026-10-14T06:02:18.000Z","publishedAt":"2026-10-14T06:06:05.000Z","updatedAt":"2026-10-14T06:06:05.000Z"},"cluster":{"id":"c_61013bd433ec106b95016ee6","canonicalTitle":"300名以上が参加。AIで「速くつくれる」時代のものづくりを考える「MERGE 2026」を開催","representativeArticleId":"a_d704c55007c7b35f612f4cfd","sourceCount":1,"writtenSourceCount":1,"writeAttempts":0,"isSolo":true,"entitiesJson":"{\"anime_titles\":[],\"manga_titles\":[],\"work_titles\":[\"MERGE 2026\"],\"studios\":[],\"people\":[],\"type\":\"event\",\"domain\":\"other\",\"is_roundup\":false}","contentType":"news","status":"published","firstSeenAt":"2026-10-14T02:00:00.000Z","lastSeenAt":"2026-10-14T02:00:00.000Z","updatedAt":"2026-10-14T06:06:06.000Z"},"attribution":[{"source":"ASCII.jp","url":"https://ascii.jp/elem/000/004/442/4442442/?rss","title":"300名以上が参加。AIで「速くつくれる」時代のものづくりを考える「MERGE 2026」を開催"}],"entities":{"anime_titles":[],"manga_titles":[],"work_titles":["MERGE 2026"],"studios":[],"people":[],"type":"event","domain":"other","is_roundup":false},"keyFacts":null}