A Japanese company is taking the idea of a virtual assistant to a new level.
By which I mean that their new virtual assistant is a tiny holographic lady who lives in what looks like a very expensive coffee maker and wants you to be her boyfriend/master.
“Azuma,” according to her bio on the Gatebox AI website, is a 20 year-old anime fan who likes eating donuts, cooking fried eggs, and obeying every command from you that she can understand.
And don’t worry, fellas, there’s no way your tiny waifu can escape from her glass prison!
Now, obviously, there is nothing inherently wrong with virtual assistants, or holograms, or talking to inanimate objects in jars if that’s what floats your boat. And there are plenty of perfectly decent people who raise virtual pets and play dating sims.
But watch this ad for Azuma and tell me it doesn’t look like the opening sequence of some creepy dystopian horror film.
This little horror isn’t here quite yet. The Japanese version, selling for the equivalent of $2700, won’t ship for another year. Presumably an English language version will come out some time after that.
I guess the question I have is this: Will MGTOWs hail Azuma as a big step towards the eventual replacement of all real human women?
Or will they be annoyed by all her naggy texts?
I will follow up once they discover her.
EDIT: Well, that was quick. See what the MGTOWs think in my post here.
H/T — GamerGhazi
Actually, her given name is “Hikari”. Azuma seems to be her family name. If they follow Japanese naming conventions in that magical alternate dimension. (Bet they do.)
And that ad made me so sad! That young man has no one but his AI girl-in-a-jar. I admit I busted out laughing to see him watching TV with her though.
The whole “Master” thing is pretty creepy. I wish there was a better way to word it. There was something vaguely appealing to me about the notion of a PDA with an avatar, but the virtual housewife aspect makes it icky at a basic level. They should release various personalities! (I’ll take Bird Person. 😉 )
Just in case anyone cares, and also because I’m a little bored, the overly-literal translation of the sign is “Master Recruitment Inside”.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought the incessant texting was definitely too much.
I mean I already hate constant texting from people made of flesh, and those tend to have limits to how fast they can type and send.
@Jack
YES ! It is my secret dream to become filthy rich just so I can hire a snarky butler.
All I can think about is that I was once an adventurer like you, but then I got an arrow in the knee. Admittedly it’s not a great example of what real possibilities are afforded by modern AIs. But still.
Also, funnily, everyone makes Giffany their waifu (and probably a lot of porn) even though her schtick is, you know, wanting to isolate and control the person she’s obsessed with at the moment? To the point she’d kill them for wanting to date someone else?
http://i.imgur.com/0jjNN9i.gif
But she is a anime high schooler in a sailor uniform so what can you expect.
Let me guess, someone stole your sweetroll?
(EDIT: Oh, wait, a Handsome Jack AI would be fun. Like, from Tales from the Borderlands and only if he knew he was a hologram and hated it.)
I half-wish I could rewatch Cherry 2000.
As long as I can get one with a virtual Varric, I am down with this tech.
Of course, the MGTOW dudes are already having frothing fantasies in the comments of that vid. Venture there at your own risk… of laughing so hard you fall off your chair.
This AI strikes me as being the logical extension of my deep, deep, deep childhood desire of catching Tinkerbell and keeping her in a big mason jar with fireflies.
I –
I feel like I should comment on this or something :s
Sounds like a Black Mirror episode.
Oh, and can we make shut up, Eurocreep the new shut up, Woody? It appears this trouser detritus is determined to spread his boner opinions in every thread now.
Among other things, apparently this is a plot by teh jooooz to exterminate the Japanese people.
There’s also a bunch of “This is good because 3-D Women are shit” type comments, which seems weird because aren’t holograms technically 3-D?
@banned Perhaps that is why she is in a jar, in case the moeblob spills.
Of course you have the realize that the 2D version has existed for years if not decades in Japan. Note how most of the ad is the guy at work; the consensus in Japan is that nobody has time for dating because they’re too busy at work. Of course that doesn’t explain all the married men who also buy virtual girlfriends. Unfortunately the awful truth is that virtual girlfriends are far easier and reliable than flesh and blood girlfriends. There is none of that messy trying to understand a person who is just as complicated as your own self; let alone the nasty realization that there is more to manhood that a good job. You never have to worry that your girlfriend will be moody or unable to help you because of her own problems. She will always be able to cheer you up. Of course the “cheer you up” algorithm was engineered by a team of people who you will never meet, but don’t worry they spent millions studying men similar to you and most of them watch the same “harem” anime TV you do, so that is kinda like understanding you…
Well, technically, holograms now aren’t 3D because they’re a projection and there’s mirrors involved and stuff and you have to look at them a certain way for them to seem 3D, as far as I know of holograms.
Like, the jar shape of the object is needed to make her appear 3D because she’s being projected on the glass at a variety of angles. Also, you can see she’s flat when the camera is pointing down at the guy in bed because it’s not designed to be able to see the top of her head.
I honestly have my suspicions that any extant AI is actually that interactive. Marketing always lies. No exceptions.
I do see the appeal of this, though. Real people are difficult, exhausting, and prone to backstabbing. If I had the option of a programmable companion who lived in a jar, I dunno for sure that I’d turn it down, and I’m just kinda jaded. For someone with genuine social anxiety or a related disorder, something like this could be a real godsend.
Of course, nothing exists divorced from context, and I bet much of the Western (and probably Japanese for that matter) market wouldn’t so much be people who have issues with people as guys who have issues with women. There are definite misogynistic overtones to what amounts to a pet girl who lives in a jar. The social ramifications are potentially nasty.
@CP Norris:
*twitch*
(Yes, I’ve seen the movie.)
@Dawn Incognito:
Which, considering that ‘hikari’ means ‘light’, makes perfect sense for a hologram.
It’s mai waifu in a box. I can see the appeal, and to be perfectly honest if a relative gifted one to me I wouldn’t mind owning one. But the master talk needs some alternative, that’s just veering straight into creeper territory.
At the same time I can’t help but laugh at the anti semetic conspiracists who’d rather blame their pet boogeyman than admit to systemic flaws in the Japanese government.
@Handsome Jack
Some people have a yandere fetish.
@D. D. Webb
Hopefully it’ll be more functional than those overhyped rc drones “THAT YOU CAN PROGRAM tm”. It would be a waste of 2700 if they weren’t able to work out the frustrating aspects that come with technology like this.
I would totally get one of these. It seems to imply that you can put in more than one kind of character in there, so there are probably downloadable kits and voice packs.
(I adore Tinkerbell also :o)
I’m also of the opinion that this little thing is likely more sophisticated than most AI’s that are seen. Someone above commented on Skyrim’s AI as a warning, which – well. Skyrim’s AI is storied. They were planning on making a very deep GOAP model (GOAP is used in The Sims, with its stack of needs and various need fulfillment sources), but time and money ran out, so they ended up putting in a much more basic pseudo-scripted model instead.
(An aside, GOAP is a very interesting model on its own, and combined with a probabilistic environmental sensing system you can make some real magic happen. Very powerful juju)
Tinkerbell in a Jar is a very different sort of beast. In video games, AI is usually one of the first things to be thrown out when money or time gets tight. It’s complicated and usually doesn’t really result in better sales, provided that a certain minimum bar of behaviour is met. This thing? It’s basically All AI. Further, it looks like it’s build with Siri-like communication handling. That implies convolutional nets or some equivalent. So, it’ll learn your habits and behaviours, and begin to predict them. I imagine it’ll text you if you deviate from that behaviour, which is what it seemed like was happening in the video clip.
Honestly? This’ll sell to the elderly really well in Japan. Something that can keep tabs on Granddad and will recognize if he didn’t make it to the Pachinko parlor like usual, and isn’t responding to the phone? That’s worth gold to people worried about their aging parents. Singles who don’t have time for a relationship as well, but, well. That’s a different thing.
Neat technology. As for the MRAs? I’m sure they are super eager about it,. Their own tiny woman that they keep in a jar. I feel so terrible thinking about how that CN would learn to behave :C Oh, tiny digital tinkerbell, be strong.
This is kind of neat, but I’d prefer a version that doesn’t act like it’s my romantic partner and only texts me to reply back to something I’ve sent it. Like if I sent, “hey, can you turn off the coffee maker?” it could send me a reply back, but none of this texting me random crap. It’s an AI, not a person.
I suppose it beats the child-size realistic sex doll that’s also out there, but ugh. Ugh. UGH.
You see, I could understand that, but she’s not portrayed that way in fanworks. (A majority of the stuff I’ve seen has her more, let’s say, submissive than in the show for some reason. /s)
But it always happens to villains who are attractive. They tone down their evilness and even completely rewrite their character because they’re hot. You know, Draco In Leather Pants syndrome.
So it’s not a yandere fetish, at least for the majority of people. Also she’s a schoolgirl so that’s gross.
Child-size as in child-like or…you know what, I have an idea and I wish to unknow that information.
Holy crap! That is the saddest thing I have ever seen.
Our corporate overlords want us to have celibate lives with no families, just holograms and for us to like it.
@Handsome Jack
I’m very late due to moving from house to house, but I should have pounced on the .GIFfany comparison much sooner. Still, you did a good! (I’ve not seen many fan works with her, save for a cartoon involving Calhoun from Wreck-It Ralph getting awful defensive of Fix-It Felix Jr. with .GIFfany around.)
And what I would do for a holo-AI of Handsome Jack (the character not you obviously) that I could just shoot the shit with.
The crap doesn’t look random. There’s a theme to it, a very needy and clingy theme.
I had actually just posted my comment when I remembered Giffany so I had, like, 4 minutes to find a clip of her being creepy, which is hard because it seems no one wants to see her as creepy.
Like, because I like using Gravity Falls gifs, I, of course, sought her out for reactions and you really have to dig deep for what I’d consider her more iconic moment of the show (which is the gif above). Mostly it’s her doing her ‘gains a sparkle in her eye’ and, uh, swimsuit pics…which…like, when you look SPECIFICALLY for GIFS of a villain and you find more positive and sexy fan art than even screenshots from the show, you’ve got a problem.
There’s just something inherently more creepy about a program that’s clingy. Like, this is real life, it’s not gonna be actually jealous or worried, the user just wants it to be clingy. They want her that way with no consequences. Maybe the AI will get sad if you leave her alone or turn her off but she’s still a mindless program made to be submissive and dependent on you while simultaneously having to fulfil all the needs of yours she can and you can just ignore and neglect her and she’ll be happy if you use her again.
It’s just…creepy. Like, however programmed it made it for someone who wants to be babied but in control and it’s just…nah.
While I get the sentiment, from what I’ve read it’s kind of reversed in Japan – corporations there specifically do want their employees to get married, as it’s what’s “expected,” and they will take efforts to set up single employees. The relatively recent trend of “herbivore men” (who I imagine are a primary target of this product) is seen by some as a rejection of that corporate lifestyle.
Looks like a new a way to milk every last yen out of lonely, women-hating nerds by way of DLC skins, behavior sets, and tie-ins to light novels/games/anime. Any possible real-world utility would be secondary to that.
Although, if one of the add-ons was a homage to the song When I Get Home My Wife Always Pretends to Be Dead, that would be hilarious. (Boring vid with good English subs: here. Awesome vid with no English subs: here.)