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TD joins as founding member of sAIpien to explore how AI can responsibly transform financial services at scale.

At the MIT Media Lab, we believe technology should serve humanity—ethically, inclusively, and imaginatively. That’s why we’re excited to welcome TD Bank Group as a new member of the Lab and a founding collaborator in sAIpien, our Scalable AI program for the Intelligent Evolution of Networks.

This initiative brings together a cross-sector community to advance research in artificial intelligence with a focus on trust, transparency, responsible data governance, and human-AI collaboration. TD joins as the financial services sector’s founding voice in the program, engaging with researchers to explore how AI might reimagine banking experiences in the decade ahead.

This reflects our ongoing commitment to and investment in AI and generative technologies.

“This reflects our ongoing commitment to and investment in AI and generative technologies,” said Luke Gee, Chief Analytics & AI Officer at TD. “We’re proud to engage actively with MIT’s best and brightest minds to test emerging models, action bold ideas, and help define how responsible, human-centric AI could help transform the future of banking.”

TD’s membership supports research into scalable, inclusive AI systems and will contribute to initiatives focused on AI talent development and future applications of emerging technologies.

“We’re thrilled to welcome TD,” said Hossein Rahnama, Visiting Professor and head of the sAIpien program. 

Financial services is a critical domain where AI can make a meaningful difference. 

“TD’s insights will help shape technologies and frameworks that aim to improve people’s lives and experiences.”

Households in Darwin spend more on electricity than most homes in Australia, but adoption of a range of home upgrades could see their bills slashed by almost 90%.

Electricity bills in the Northern Territory (NT) are already among the highest in the country, and they are set to rise further. In its 2025 Budget, the NT government announced regulated prices will climb by 3% in 2025-26. However, recent research by the Institute for Energy Economics & Financial Analysis (IEEFA) shows that Darwin households could dramatically reduce their bills by adding rooftop solar and battery storage, and upgrading to more efficient electric appliances. 

These upgrades would also have wider benefits for the Darwin-Katherine electricity grid, helping to stabilise demand and reduce the need for costly grid-scale investment. In addition, the switch to renewable energy sources would reduce the NT’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Darwin stands out nationally for its high household electricity use. The tropical climate drives significant cooling needs: around half of a typical household’s electricity demand is for cooling alone. Hot water accounts for another 17%, while cooking, lighting and other appliances make up the rest. 

The high consumption means bills are usually quite high. A typical Darwin home spends around $3,500 per year on power, much of it going towards cooling. While NT households enjoy relatively low daily supply charges and similar volumetric charges compared with other jurisdictions, their high overall power use means bills remain substantial. 

However there are major opportunities to reduce household energy bills.

By switching existing appliances to efficient electric alternatives, including heat pump hot water systems rather than resistive electric hot water systems, our modelling found a typical household could save around $400 a year. This bill reduction mostly arises from the fact that heat pump hot water systems use around one third of the energy that resistive electric equivalents do.

Further savings are made by adding rooftop solar. Our modelling found an 8-kilowatt (kW) system could typically reduce bills by roughly $2,100 annually. This arises from the household’s reduced reliance on grid electricity and the income it receives from exporting solar energy to the grid. 

Adding a 10-kilowatt-hour (kWh) battery to this system creates further bill reductions of approximately $600. This arises because the household is able to consume more of its solar energy after dark, slashing its overnight demand for grid electricity.

All these upgrades combined – solar, storage and efficient appliances – brings the final bill down to around $370 per year, a staggering 89% reduction.

So what is the catch? Why aren’t all households doing this right now? 

Well, the upgrades do require significant upfront investment. However, the payback periods are compelling – meaning the upgrades are worthwhile.

A heat pump hot water system plus induction cooktop costs around $2,200 after federal government rebates for the hot water system are accounted for, and pays for itself in about 5.4 years (or 6.7 years without rebates).

Data from SolarChoice suggests that an 8kW rooftop solar system costs roughly $11,000 after rebates in Darwin – more expensive than in other capital cities – but it still pays for itself in just over five years (6.6 years before rebates). If a 10kWh battery (about $6,700 after federal government rebates) is packaged with the solar system, this brings the total payback to 6.3 years, within the battery’s 13-year expected lifetime. 

Altogether, a household investing in all these upgrades could achieve near-elimination of its annual power bill – its bills would be just 11% of their starting point before any upgrades. 

The savings for an individual household are huge. However, the benefits of these household energy upgrades extend beyond individual households. 

Solar, storage and efficient appliances reduce electricity demand at peak times, easing pressure on the grid.

The typical Darwin household we modelled had a peak demand of about 2.5kW on an average day in January, occurring at around 6pm. Switching to more efficient appliances (and setting the new heat pump hot water system to run in the middle of the day) brought this down slightly, to 2.3kW. Rooftop solar reduces peaks further to around 2kW, since rooftop solar still generates significant power into the afternoon/evening peak. When a battery is added, evening peaks on an average day effectively disappear.

This pattern is reasonably consistent across the year thanks to the consistency of a typical Darwin household’s power demand and Darwin’s strong solar resource. 8kW of rooftop solar consistently produces more than enough energy to charge the 10kWh battery fully, and household demand is usually high enough to deplete it. That means no evening imports are typically required from the grid and little surplus remains for export. 

However with a larger battery, which is increasingly common in Australia, there could be export potential in the evenings. With the NT introducing a feed-in tariff of 18.66 cents per kWh for regulated households and businesses that export electricity to the grid between 3pm and 9pm, households with large batteries could make financial gains from exporting back to the grid in the evening.

Peak demand reductions arising from solar and storage have major implications for system planning in the NT. It can reduce pressure on networks and large-scale generation resources, and reduce some costs associated with those.

Household batteries can also help soak up solar generation during the day, lifting minimum demand and stabilising the system. 

There is also significant untapped potential in improving the thermal efficiency of NT housing. Poor insulation and building design mean many Darwin households use more energy for cooling than necessary. We found that the difference between a 2-star and 7-star home (under the Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme) was a 26% reduction in energy bills and 30% reduction in peak demand. 

Better housing design and thermal efficiency upgrades could provide bill relief for the largest component of household energy use in Darwin, air conditioning, while easing pressure on the grid. 

Improving building standards could be a key lever to enable this. The NT is lagging behind other states in building standards – while most jurisdictions now require 7-star efficiency for new builds, the NT only requires ratings of 5 stars for houses and 3.5 stars for apartments. 

While there is significant opportunity for Darwin households to reduce their bills, many households cannot undertake these upgrades due to upfront cost barriers. Others in rented dwellings are unable to make decisions around home upgrades. Targeted measures would be required to support these households to access these benefits. Improved appliance and building standards would also help these households.

While our study was focused on Darwin, other areas of the NT could similarly benefit from these household energy upgrades. While the mix of climate drivers and demand patterns differs across regions, our modelling found that the total savings potential from upgrades is surprisingly consistent nationwide.

Darwin households face high electricity needs and rising bills, but solutions are at hand. Efficient electric appliances, rooftop solar and batteries could cut bills by nearly 90%, while also reducing peak demand and supporting the grid. 

Expanding financial support for household energy upgrades and improving building and appliance standards could support households in undertaking these upgrades. This would reduce bills, reduce emissions, and strengthen the resilience of the Territory’s energy system.

 

Tokyo, Japan, October 28, 2025 – Panasonic Corporation (Head office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President & CEO: Masahiro Shinada; hereinafter referred to as Panasonic) today announced that it has invested in SISI Co., Ltd. (Head office: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Mika Sawada; hereinafter referred to as SISI), the operator of the functional skincare brand SISI. The investment was made through a corporate venture capital fund, commonly known as the Panasonic Kurashi Visionary Fund, jointly managed by Panasonic and SBI Investment Co., Ltd. Panasonic and SISI signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate mainly on the development of new beauty products.

SISI offers functional skincare products for sensitive skin through various sales channels, including online platforms, department stores, and drugstores. These products combine the effectiveness of naturally derived ingredients with scientific technology. SISI also helps customers achieve their ideal skin through SISI LAB, a professional skin analysis service that provides care and advice based on each customer’s skin condition. Following this investment, SISI will collaborate with Panasonic on the development of new beauty products.

Panasonic has operated its beauty and healthcare business by responding to the beauty and health concerns of many people through the development of consumer electronics. Through this investment, Panasonic aims to deepen its collaboration with SISI and offer products and solutions that combine SISI’s expertise in the cosmetics business and data accumulated through SISI LAB with Panasonic’s expertise and strengths in beauty appliances and manufacturing. In doing so, the company seeks to create new customer experiences and value.

Panasonic will continue to strengthen its open innovation initiatives based on strong partnerships formed through investments in promising startups in Japan and overseas that are competitive in areas closely related to people’s lives, such as energy, food infrastructure, spatial infrastructure, and lifestyle.

Hong Kong
 — 

In land-starved Hong Kong a tiny, no-frills apartment far from the city center can eat up half of a monthly salary. But for bold renters there’s one sure way to get a discount: choose a property haunted by a murder or unnatural death.

The houses, often apartments inside the city’s tall residential buildings, strike so much fear among residents that anyone willing to live there can negotiate hefty discounts in one of the world’s most expensive property markets.

“The discount could be massive and many people who don’t mind can rent these places below the market price” said Ng Goon-lau, an investor so well-known for owning dozens of these apartments that local media has dubbed him the “King of Haunted Houses.”

Lists of haunted houses can be found on most estate agent websites. They are places where an unnatural or premature death has occurred and include the scenes of some of the city’s most gruesome murders.

Property-listing website Spacious.hk compiles a 92-page list that dates back to 2006, featuring details of how each death occurred. In a city known for its tightly packed residential towers, many entries state the cause of death as “fell from height.”

Other real estate agencies offer advice about how to identify spooky apartments, including checking death certificates and quizzing potential neighbors about the apartment’s history.

In a city heavily influenced by Buddhism and Taoism, living in apartments associated with ghastly deaths often stokes fear of bad fortune.

Feng shui master Andrew Kwan said people believe that those who died a tragic death may not get closure. “Their hatred may stay. (Their spirit) may remain in the apartment,” he said.

The fear of a curse has created a unique market for bargain-hunting investors and tenants who are happy to try their luck.

Property prices plunge by an average of 20% after they are labelled haunted – and up to 34% in the event of a murder, according to Utpal Bhattacharya, Chair Professor of Finance at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, who led a study on the phenomena in 2019.

A ripple effect spreads to properties on the same floor, which often see their value drop 10%, and even flats in the same building can fall 7%, he told CNN.

“The belief in Feng Shui is quite strong among Chinese, and the population in Hong Kong is about 94% Chinese…implying that most buyers have a large distaste for haunted houses,” said Bhattacharya.

Disclosure is not required under Hong Kong law, but regulators demand property agents provide accurate information about any death upon inquiry.

These details matter because the circumstance of the death – from accidents to malicious murders – could determine the size of the discount.

In death, Ng, a veteran investor in his 70s, sees opportunity. He scoops up the so-called haunted homes from owners who are desperate to sell, and leases them out at up to 30% below market price.

“Many people don’t actually have a strong feeling against hung zaats. It all comes down to the extent of the discount,” he said.

Still, the prevailing mood of the city is to stay away – or at least be cautious.

That especially applies to properties linked to some of the city’s most chilling murder cases.

In 2014, British banker Rurik Jutting brutally murdered two Indonesian women and hid one of the bodies in a suitcase in his upscale apartment in J Residence in Wan Chai, a popular nightlife district in Hong Kong.

As gruesome details of the murders emerged, the value of the one-bedroom apartment where they took place was estimated to have plunged from $1.16 million to $770,000, with its $3,740 monthly rental halved, Bloomberg reported at the time.

Another unit in Tsuen Wan, a residential neighborhood in the New Territories, was sold at a loss of $142,000, shaving 40% off the original price, according to local news reports. The unit was the scene of a money-fueled murder in 2016 involving three men, who killed their friend and sealed his body in a slab of cement stored in the unit.

Owners of the properties are almost certain to lose money. It’s very difficult to find a buyer for homes listed as a haunted house – partly because banks also tend to stay away.

Eric Pau, Senior Associate Director at Ricacorp Properties, a major real estate firm in Hong Kong, told CNN many banks view them as high-risk investments. “In most cases, mortgages will not be granted,” he said.

But he said others see it as an opportunity. As an investor, Ng’s playbook is to be selective about the type of “haunted homes” he buys.

He tries to avoid properties associated with gruesome murders as much as possible and looks for places where the death occurred some time ago.

“Fortunately, some ‘haunted houses’ have been around for so long that people have forgotten about what happened,” he said. “The main thing is to make people not to feel sad and unpleasant.”

But like all investments, there are risks, and Ng has had some spooky failures.

One time, he said, a tenant broke the lease just days after moving in. The tenant never told him why, so he turned to the neighbors.

“The neighbors told me that the three-year-old son of this tenant opened a very difficult book in the middle of the night and read it attentively,” Ng recalled being told.

“He thought his son was possessed,” he said.