Sadder Than HER, Creepier than Black Mirror: Gatebox’s AI Assistant

With an ever decreasing population growth rate we can say Japan has a sex and intimacy problem. Birthrate is shrinking year after year, not at the point where deaths are topping births. People are more into work then having real relationships, sex and children.

Going down faster than Blackberry market share

But in the end we are all humans and we all in need of some kind of “human contact”. Nowadays that’s where AI, robot came in. Past few years we saw a lot of movies and tv series on this topic. Biggest companies made AI their primary target.

While Google’s and Apple’s working for solutions to humanize their AI products, Gatebox said ‘fuck the box’ and shoved a blue-haired teen anime girl inside. Gatebox AI is a whole lot different from your typical digital assistants.

When I watch the video below, at first I though this is some kind of joke maybe a short movie project. But no it is real and it is even on pre-order. And this is not your average Amazon Echo search engine. This is probably the most expensive roommate you can get, for 298.000 Yen ($2500). Unlike your regular roommate, she is not going to split bills but if your problem is loneliness, she could be the answer. Well, maybe not the best answer but answer of some sort. It’s time to meet your new roommate (maybe soulmate Azuma Hikari)

Her name is Azuma Hikari, and she’s the star of the Gatebox.

Her name is Azuma Hikari, and she's the star of the Gatebox.

Usual Japanese anime sexism aside, video shows an insight for lonely cosmopolite single life. If you get the fact from a 2016 study by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research in Japan, indicates that “almost 70 percent of unmarried men and 60 percent of unmarried women are not in a relationship.” and 72 percent of man under 30 is never married.

 

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