Since this month, the Japanese government has implemented the Law on the Promotion of Loneliness and Isolation Countermeasures, a law to address the growing problem of loneliness among Japanese people. Japanese start-ups are also rolling up their sleeves and accelerating the development of artificial intelligence (AI) products that can help users alleviate loneliness, with a special focus on AI conversation partners.
Unlike ChatGPT which offers a solution
Respond like a friend or parent
Japanese start-up Starley has recently developed a conversational generative AI, "Cotomo". "Cotomo" is an application (APP) developed to solve the loneliness of single families. The app mentions in its introduction that you can always look for it when you're driving alone or when you're having trouble telling your friends. After downloading the app, users can set their tone and gender, and then they can talk to them, and "Cotomo" will respond like a friend or parent.
An introductory image of "Cotomo", an interactive AI companion developed to relieve loneliness
For example, if the user comes home alone and says, "I'm back," it will reply, "It's been hard today," and if the user then sighs, it will notice and ask, "What's wrong??,Are you tired?," and if the user says, "Recently, because of work...... More overtime than annual leave", it learns from previous data and sympathizes, saying "you said that last time".
The peculiarity of this AI is that it does not provide specific solutions in responses like ChatGPT does. Instead, it will reply with echoing words such as "um" and "so it is" within 1 second, making it feel like you're chatting with a close friend. The person in charge of "Cotomo" said, "It is like a partner who can listen to your own words", "Because it is not human, the user will not be ashamed, and the psychological barrier can be lowered".
Another Japanese AI company, PKSHA, also set out to build a system to alleviate loneliness by chatting with AI. Starting this summer, they will be offering AI application plug-ins for lonely people. If necessary, the company said, they will also reach out to community welfare workers to begin empirical experiments.
According to Japanese statistics, 39.3% of the people feel lonely
There are obvious pros and cons of AI accompaniment
New social problems that Japan is currently facing include low fertility, an aging population, and loneliness and isolation. According to a nationwide survey conducted by the Japanese government in December last year, 39.3 percent of people said they felt "lonely." This percentage is higher among young people and single-person households.
Young Japanese depressed patients discuss their lives
Ryo Kikuchi, a professor of social security law at Waseda University, said: "There is a wide range of problems related to loneliness and isolation, including economic poverty and the resulting lonely deaths, as well as the '80-50 problem,' in which parents in their 80s live with their squatting children in their 50s, and family combinations leave members in a state of social isolation." ”
"The use of AI, which can have conversations anytime, anywhere, will be one of the means to alleviate loneliness," the report said. However, "there are also side effects of increasing reliance on AI."
At the same time, the report introduced some chatbots (such as "Replika") in the United States, saying that users made verbal violence and sexual harassment remarks through the app, which fell into vulgarity and ethical controversy. Research from the University of Georgia in the United States has shown that if AI is put into individual-led work, it can exacerbate loneliness.
On 1 April, the Government of Japan began implementing part of the Law on the Promotion of Countermeasures to Loneliness and Isolation, which defines "loneliness and isolation" as "a problem for society as a whole" and requires local governments to work towards the establishment of regional committees that are obliged to do everything possible to pull people out of loneliness;
Red Star News reporter Deng Shuyi
Edited by Guo Yu and edited by Guan Li
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