A major Tokyo-based toy company has unveiled a new AI ‘storytelling speaker’ that brings tears to your eyes, far more than just a toy.
With this device, the family and friends of the deceased can “reanimate” the deceased and hear the voice at any time.
Tommy’s “coemo” speaker, which was released last year, is one of the new AI products that can learn and “reproduce” how people think and speak.
With coemo, you can listen to fairy tales from Japan and other countries in the same voice as your family and friends.
For example, if a user wants coemo to speak in a parental voice, the mother or father would first read through the app an example sentence, such as “The bill is $350 per person,” for 15 minutes to tell coemo what to say. You have to learn your voice. So.
Coemo then “reads” a fairy tale that the parent has never read, in a voice that reflects the tone and style of speech of the mother or father.
Akiko Goto, who developed Coemo at the company, says, “I want to expand the possibilities of toys.”
In coemo, people’s voices are replicated only to read specific children’s stories.
As such, it is designed to prevent someone’s voice from being used for malicious purposes such as fraud.
revive the “dead”
Another AI product, created by Tokyo-based alt Inc., can “store” how people think in order to create a “digital clone” of humans.
For example, if someone wants to create a digital clone of their grandfather, the company’s AI product learns information about them, such as their experiences, books they read, and how they think based on available data.
Companies then store such information in the cloud.
In this way, after the grandfather’s death, if the grandchild wonders, “What did you think about this idea?” For example, what did the grandfather think? AI derives the “answer” from the information stored in the cloud.
Hitoshi Nishikawa, alt’s chief technology officer and vice president of engineering, said, “You can experience as if someone (dead) came back to life.”
The company attracts interest primarily from wealthy clients, such as entrepreneurs who want to create digital clones of themselves.
Coemo and digital clones can be said to be similar to ChatGPT, the recently touted AI chatbot, but more personalized in nature.
ChatGPT allows users to type in questions and provide natural, human-like answers.
Chatbots can write stories and keep long conversations going. In contrast, digital clones are made for personal use.
“I would like to develop an AI with distinctive features. It’s a pity that my life ends when I die,” said Nishikawa.
However, technological progress can have a negative impact on society depending on how it is used.
For example, a controversial video of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s AI-generated voice was posted online ahead of his state funeral in September.
A voice resembling Mr. Abe was heard on video addressing the Japanese public.
In recent years, fake videos featuring well-known politicians such as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and former US President Barack Obama have been produced using AI.
The world would be a scarier place if it was filled with fake videos of politicians making false comments and making risky decisions, observers say.
Yutaka Matsuo, professor of artificial intelligence at the University of Tokyo, said, “The level[of AI technology used to create such videos]is currently very high. There is a difference between someone’s real voice and a voice generated by AI. You can’t tell the difference.”
In addition to ChatGPT, the general public has more opportunities to talk to AI, such as hotel reservations and procedures on smartphones.
Matsuo says it is human desire that drives the development of AI. For example, people’s desire to have robot clerks serve them, or to have their favorite celebrities call out their names.
But observers say advances in AI make people uneasy because they lead to fears that AI will control humans.
However, Matsuo says the abuses of AI are man-made.
“AI works according to human-made systems,” he says. “We will not do anything more than that. To prevent misuse of AI, we need to create something that can be applied to humans, such as enacting laws as technology advances.”
