Toyota Tsusho Corporation ("Toyota Tsusho") announced today that it will jointly develop a conversational AI system with emotivE Inc. ("emotivE"), a one-stop provider of communication AI planning, development, and services, with the aim of business creation and market expansion of conversational AI products.

As a service that bridges the digital divide by making it possible for anyone to fully utilize digital technology, AI-based conversational systems are expected to be a technology that brings new value to the smart society field, represented by the revitalization of the spirit of all generations as well as depopulated and remote areas. However, conventional conversational technology has been limited in its range of applications due to the high cost of learning and difficulty in controlling responses. As a result, a technological breakthrough is needed.

emotivE, which is jointly developing this AI system, is a startup company with proprietary cutting-edge technology that develops “Ninshiki Model®️AI “OMOHIKANE®️”” (“OMOHIKANE®️”), an open conversational AI equipped with excellent inference and data structuring technologies.

Toyota Tsusho aims to provide the functions needed to realize a highly convenient society in the future. To this end, it has been working since 2016 to verify the actual feasibility of lifestyle support robots and electronic devices that facilitate communication between humans and machines through their operation in automobile dealerships and large-scale commercial buildings. Toyota Tsusho has decided to jointly collaborate with emotivE, the developer of OMOHIKANE®️ which has achieved very good benchmark demonstration results as an open conversational AI, to enhance AI technology and the conversational ability of AI products while also creating businesses and expanding markets.

Going forward, Toyota Tsusho plans to enhance the deliverables from this joint development in stages. While doing this, it plans to not just create businesses and expand markets in the existing space, but also begin efforts to solve the social issues of seniors and expand widely into markets such as smart home, mobility technology and smart city in order to realize Society5.0.

Business Creation and Market Expansion Image

Toyota Tsusho will further enhance OMOHIKANE®️’s features of functional emergence and artificial conversational ability that fulfills hearts. By doing so, it will provide innovative conversational AI technology and products by fulfilling AI utilization situations in daily life as the social environment changes due to declining birthrates, aging populations, and the era of living with COVID-19.

Company name	emotivE Inc.
Location	2-16-1, Shimbashi, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Established	January 2018
Representative	CEO Masayuki Kessoku
Business description	Development of AI content and conversational AI technology that people will always want to use