Three Japanese AI experiments: virtual life, web answers and a TV character

A tiny creature gathers around food in a virtual world. A question about an ageing population returns a long list of answers and source links. A television character replies to a viewer on LINE. ARTILIFE, WISDOM X and AI Kahoko made very different kinds of interaction visible.

ARTILIFE: watch a creature learn to move

Dwango's ARTILIFE (アーティライフ) put artificial creatures into virtual environments. In its 2018 introduction, the company described choosing a region and a creature, then spending observation points on food, reproduction or changes to the environment. People could exchange creatures, combine individuals and follow a named family tree. The company also showed a live-streaming mode where viewers could send creatures, food or objects into a broadcaster's observation area.

The creatures' motion used reinforcement-learning research from Dwango Media Village. The examples in the original announcement show the product as its makers presented it; they are not our own play sessions. ARTILIFE later ended. June 30, 2019 is the announced service cutoff used as a proxy, not an independently measured shutdown time. ARTILIFE archive.

WISDOM X: ask a question, inspect the sources

NICT's WISDOM X let people enter natural-language questions and returned answers extracted from web pages, with links back to their sources. Its 2015 introduction described different displays for “what,” “why” and “what happens” questions. If someone started with a single keyword, the system could suggest questions to explore. NICT gave “smartphone” as an example: a reader could move from that word to questions about concerns or what might happen as smartphones became widespread.

In one 2015 demonstration, NICT started with “big data,” selected a suggested question about what it could create, and showed roughly 500 answers, including films and regional-economy analysis. The example illustrates a path from a broad word to a more specific question, not a guarantee about the answers.

The 2021 deep-learning version used BERT and related methods. One NICT demonstration asked which problems of an ageing society AI might help solve; the interface displayed a list of answers rather than one generated response. This historical demonstration does not establish that every answer was correct. NICT's 2015 introduction and 2021 announcement explain the two stages.

NICT ended the public WISDOM X trial on September 30, 2026; related technology continues in later research. WISDOM X archive.

AI Kahoko: a character between episodes

AI Kahoko (AI カホコ) was a LINE conversation service connected to the 2017 Japanese television drama Kahogo no Kahoko. Viewers could add the character as a contact in LINE. The account sent replies through the LINE Messaging API, so the drama reached viewers inside an app they already used for conversation. The operators asked viewers to send text because the character did not respond to images, video or stickers.

The July 2017 announcement identified NTT Resonant’s “goo no AI” as the technology behind the account. Its makers described updating the character after episodes using the drama's material and conversation data. That is the design described by the operators, not proof that the character understood a viewer like a person. The original joint announcement describes the interaction. The standalone service has ended; LINE and the television programme are separate. AI Kahoko archive.

Each experience exposed a different intermediate result: movement in a simulated habitat, an answer with a source, or a character's reply. Those details make the individual products more memorable than a list of model names.