A Tokyo-based major toy company has a new AI "storytelling speaker" that is much more than just a toy and will bring a tear to users' eyes. 

With this device, family members or friends of the deceased can make them “reappear” anytime and hear their voices.

Tomy Co.'s "coemo" speaker, which it launched last year, is one of the new AI products that can learn how people think or speak to “reproduce” them.

The coemo allows users to listen to children’s stories from Japan or other countries spoken in the voice identical to that of their family members or friends.

For example, if users want the coemo to speak in their parent’s voice, their mother or father must first make it learn their voices through an app by reading aloud sample sentences such as, “The bill is $350 per person,” for 15 minutes or so.

Then, the coemo “reads out” children’s stories that the parent has never read in a voice that reflects characteristics of their mother's or father’s tone of voice and how they speak.

Akiko Goto, who developed the coemo at the company, said, “I wanted to expand the possibilities of toys.”

With the coemo, people’s voices are replicated only to read out certain children’s stories.

Therefore, it is designed to not allow someone’s voice to be used for malicious purposes such as fraud.

BRINGING THE 'DEAD' BACK TO LIFE

Another AI product is produced by Tokyo-based alt Inc. and can “preserve” how people think to create “digital clones” of human beings.

For example, if someone wants to create a digital clone of his or her grandfather, the company's AI product learns information about him, including his experiences and the books he's read, as well as the way he thinks based on available data.

Then the company stores such information in the cloud.

In this fashion, after the grandfather's death, if his grandchild wonders, “What would he have thought about this idea?” for example, AI will produce an “answer” based on information stored in the cloud on how the grandfather thought.

Hitoshi Nishikawa, chief technology officer and vice president of engineering at alt, says, “You can have an experience as if someone (dead) had been brought back to life.”

The company has received interest from mainly wealthy clients such as entrepreneurs, who want to create digital clones of themselves.

The coemo and the digital clone could be described as being similar to ChatGPT, the AI chatbot that is widely publicized these days, but are more personalized in nature.

ChatGPT gives natural-sounding answers if users input questions, just like in conversations between humans.

The chatbot can write stories or carry on long conversations. In comparison, the digital clones will be created for individuals.

“We hope to develop AI with characteristics," Nishikawa said. "It’s a shame if your life is over when you die.”

However, technological advancements may negatively impact society depending on how they are used.

For example, videos of AI-generated voice of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that were posted on the internet ahead of his state funeral in September caused controversy.

A voice similar to Abe’s was heard speaking to the Japanese public in the videos.

In addition, fake videos featuring high-profile politicians such as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and former U.S. President Barack Obama have been produced using AI overseas in recent years.

The world would become a more frightening place if it were filled with such fake videos that show politicians making false comments and dangerous decisions, observers say.

Yutaka Matsuo, professor of artificial intelligence at the University of Tokyo, says, “The level of (AI technologies used to produce such videos) is significantly high now. You can’t tell the difference between someone’s real voice and an AI-generated one.”

The public has increasingly more opportunities to speak with AI, not just through ChatGPT but also when booking a hotel or going through some procedures on smartphones, for example.

Matsuo says it’s human desire that prompts the development of AI, such as a wish to be served by a robot shop assistant, or people's desire to have their favorite celebrities call them by name.

However, observers say that AI advancements make people nervous because it leads to fear that AI might control human beings.

But Matsuo says that any abuse of AI is human-made.

“AI acts according to systems that human beings create," he says. "It doesn’t do anything more than that. If we are to prevent the abuse of AI, it’s necessary to make something to apply to human beings, like enacting laws matching technological advancements.”