Tokyo, JP (Jan 26th, 2018) --Dwango Co., Ltd. has announced that they will be applying dialogue data collected from online users participating in the conversational A.I. training project “Role-play Based Question Answering - Ayase Aragaki” to the virtual home robot “Gatebox” provided by Gatebox Inc. This joint project will enable fans to converse with the anime character “Ayase Aragaki”, in real life.

The Role-play Based Question Answering developed by NTT Media Intelligence Laboratories creates conversational A.I. by gathering dialogue data from users on Niconico, a social video service operated by Dwango. Dialogue data are formed through sets of question and answer posted by users – one user will ask a question to a certain character, and another user will mimic the character’s personality and answer those questions.

Role-play Based Question Answering - Ayase Aragaki, which began on October 11th, 2017, is one of the ongoing projects where users cultivate the conversational A.I. for Ayase Aragaki. Ayase is one of the main characters from the light novel seriesOre no Imōto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Naiwritten by Tsukasa Fushimi. For this joint project, dialogue data gathered for the Role-play Based Question Answering - Ayase Aragaki will be installed inside the virtual home robot Gatebox to enable users to engage in a realistic conversation. Gatebox Ayase version will be first displayed to the public at Niconico Chokaigi 2018 held on April 28-29th where visitors can get a first-hand experience.

Additionally, a dedicated website will open prior to the event with a free-to-play visual novel game. The game introduces dialogues and responses collected from Role-play Based Question Answering - Ayase Aragaki which will be voiced by Ayase’s voice actress Saori Hayami (for more details, check Gatebox Aragaki Ayase Collaboration Website below).

[What is Role-play Based Question Answering – Ayase Aragaki?]

Role-play Based Question Answering - Ayase Aragaki
©Tsukasa Fushimi / ASCII MEDIA WORKS/OIP2
© BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Inc.

Role-play Based Question Answering - Ayase Aragaki is a conversational A.I training system based on Role-play Based Question Answering developed by Ryuichiro Higashinaka from NTT Media Intelligence Laboratories. This is a joint experiment by Dwango and NTT which aims to train a conversational A.I. with dialogue data provided by niconico users. Participants in this experiment will ask the character a question, and other participants will mimic the character’s personality and reply to those questions. Participants will also rate the question and answer pairs to assess how appropriate it sounded for the character. NTT will then create a conversational A.I. from the dialogue data. Because participants are limited to fans that are paying members and understand the character, the data acquired in this method are more favorable - as opposed to data acquired from the mass in an open internet environment. Conversational character A.I. developed by the Role-play Based Question Answering system can also answer questions not registered in its database and have random chats with humans.
On October 11th, 2017 a new project called Role-play Based Question Answering Ore no Yome ga Konnna ni Kawaii Wake Ganai began to celebrate the release ofAyase if- an alternate story for the light novel series by Tsukasa FushimiOre no Imōto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai. In this project, users on the Tsukasa Fushimi Channel, a paid channel on Niconico Live Streaming, will train a conversational A.I. for Ayase Aragaki, one of the main characters in the story.

[What is Gatebox and what does it do?]

GateboxUnit

Gatebox is a virtual home robot developed by Gatebox Inc which incorporates the latest projection/sensing/voice recognition technology to summon a holographic character inside the machine. Once connected to user’s home network, Gatebox can become a personal home assistant robot by automating certain tasks such as switching on/off household appliances. The Gatebox project enables users to bring their favorite fictional characters into life. As part of this ongoing project, the dialogue data for Ayase Aragaki gathered on the Role-play Based Question Answering system will be installed inside Gatebox and displayed at Niconico Chokaigi 2018 (details to be released at a later date).

＜Related Links＞
◆Gatebox Ayase Aragaki Collaboration Website :
https://event.narikiri-qa.jp/oreimo-ayase-gatebox/index.html
◆Role-play Based Question Answering Ore no Imōto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai :
https://narikiri-qa.jp/oreimo-ayase/
◆Tsukasa Fushimi Channel :
http://ch.nicovideo.jp/tsukasa-fushimi