Japanese language AI chat system to be developed

The communications ministry intends to develop a conversation system that utilises artificial intelligence to fully understand the Japanese language, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned. Private companies will also participate in the project.

The Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry is set to begin feasibility testing of the project next fiscal year with a goal to launch the system in 2020.

The ministry will compete against global companies such as Amazon.com, Inc. of the United States that have already made headway in the field. The new system will be compatible with high-speed next-generation 5G (see below), or the fifth-generation mobile communication technology, and will be able to converse in natural Japanese as if the user were speaking face-to-face with someone.

Conversation systems utilising AI can understand users’ questions and rely on a massive database of expressions to immediately and appropriately respond. The system attains more natural speaking capabilities as more expressions are accumulated in the database.

The new system will be based on a conversation system owned by the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), which is under the communications ministry’s jurisdiction. It utilises a large volume of Japanese language data collected online in constructing appropriate responses to questions.

The ministry will collect conversation data in partnership with private-sector companies to enhance the system’s fluency in Japanese, a language with a number of distinctive characteristics including a tendency to exclude subjects from sentences. The system’s use of 5G technology is expected to enhance response speed and the accuracy of its expressions.

English-based conversation systems developed by global companies sometimes err in their responses to Japanese questions, depending on the content of the question.

The government aims to develop a new system that can answer any question in Japanese. The cost of development is estimated to be several billion yen.

In the United States, many devices sold by Google Inc., Amazon and other companies utilise voice recognition technology, which allows users to search websites and make online purchases through voice commands. Such devices are increasing in popularity.

The ministry also anticipates using the technology for self-driving cars and household robots among other uses. It is also expected that drivers and passengers will be able to casually chat with their vehicles and that robots will be able to detect certain diseases at early stages, including dementia, based on the content of the conversation.

■ 5G
 Communication speeds for this new technology are expected to be 100 times faster than current speeds for smartphones and other devices, while communication capacity will be 1,000 times larger. Japan aims to launch this new service by 2020, when the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games will be held.