How AI is coming 'alive', replacing human roles — as robots or as wives

The technology is being developed to be human-like, raising questions like whether artificial intelligence will walk beside people, or virtual living become a new reality. What is AI capable of already?

It has been almost a year since Akihiko Kondo’s wedding ceremony. But in all that time, he has not held his wife’s hands nor hugged her.

She is a virtual assistant, you see — a hologram in a box — created by an artificial intelligence (AI) company that wants to improve on the likes of Alexa and Siri. To Kondo, she is alive — an actual companion in the physical world. “She’s my life partner,” he says of Hatsune Miku.

He is not alone here. So far, the makers of the hologram device have issued 3,700 marriage certificates stating that a human and a virtual character have wed “beyond dimensions”.

The virtual entity is built with a machine-learning algorithm that can recognise her “husband’s” voice. But as most of her speech capabilities are not yet developed, Kondo’s interactions with her are mostly routine phrases like “good morning” or “have a good day at work”.

 

“Other than that, discussing what’s on the news, for example, isn’t really possible at the moment. But that progression is something I’m eagerly looking forward to,” says the Tokyo resident.

Miku’s algorithm is a simple piece of code, but enough to simulate a connection with him that he committed to a spousal relationship.

And codes are getting more sophisticated, beginning to interact with humans in surprising and spontaneous ways, not only bringing AI to life but also developing it to be human-like, as the programme Coded World discovers. (Watch the episode here.)

What else is AI capable of, and as human-computer interaction continues to evolve, could AI robots one day replace human roles?