[Netease Smart News, April 15] This cute robot language teacher named Musio made its debut in a Japanese store this week. It is a product that matures through crowdfunding activities. Musio sells for 98,000 yen (about 900 US dollars), and now it is selling through the Softbank Market and the Amazon Japan network, and it can be seen in several physical stores.
Musio's parent company is the artificial intelligence company AKA Study, which is the newly founded startup company of Raymond Jung, co-founder of Hackers Education Group, Korea's largest successful test preparation company. Today, AKA Study has about 50 full-time employees, most of whom are in Seoul. It also has a small office in Santa Monica, California. Technically speaking, this company is headquartered in the United States, but it has not yet produced any consumer electronics products in the US market.
TechCrunch once asked Raymond why he considered Musio as a robot because it cannot move and cannot lift anything. He explained: “We installed a motor system there. If you need a dynamic part, you can add it in the future.†The AKA Study is planning to allow the next-generation Musio robot to walk, or use arms and legs more flexibly.
Today, Musio can chat with users and use their personalized tone to answer their trivial questions. When they don't know the answer, they will admit it and they can correct the user's grammar. The robot is combined with various courses, including printed books and games developed by educational publisher Gakken. Of course, these books need to be purchased by the user individually or as part of an advanced Musio suite.
Musio's face and heart are touch screens that can display many emotions and are designed to appeal to users. Animated eyes and hearts are not unique to Musio. Other social robots such as EMMs and Rogoo's Domgy have vibrant and emotional eyes. Aldebaran’s humanoid robot, Pepper, expresses emotions through its tablet and its eyes. In addition, users can use the screen at Musio's face and heart to navigate different menus.
Artificial intelligence giants such as Apple, Amazon, Baidu, Google, IBM, and Tencent have provided a large number of technologies for developers who want to provide voice control, natural language processing, or emotional intelligence as part of their applications or hardware. But the AKA Study is developing a series of proprietary artificial intelligence engines that allow the company and its Musio robots to recognize and remember a particular user and build a rapport with them over time and with reference to past conversations.
This machine learning also allows Musio to identify which language skills the learner needs to improve. For example, if Musio recalls that a user previously had a problem with a vocabulary module involving dinosaurs, then he can advise the user to comment on the next chat. Raymond explained: "Musio will answer your questions, but our competitive advantage is to talk to you naturally."
When a user asks a question about Musio, its answer sounds more like a friend's answer than a reading of top search results. Raymond’s grand vision is to develop Musio and other artificial intelligence based devices and applications for use outside of education. For example, Raymond conceived that Musio evolved into a "companion," helping seniors maintain social connections and maintain a healthy, independent life. He said that Japan’s demand for social robots is large, which is one of the reasons why his company focuses on this market.
The CEO also said that the car company has expressed interest in the company's MUSE platform, which adds a friendly interaction factor to the driver interface. Now that Musio is on sale, AKA Study plans to make it available to other developers using its artificial intelligence engine. These developers will find that Apple's Siri or Amazon's Alexa lack some personal qualities.
So far, the AKA Study has obtained 10.7 million U.S. dollars in seed rounds and A rounds of financing. Formation 8 led round A financing, and SV Angel’s founder David Lee was the company’s first angel investor. Other companies that invest in AKA Study include the Japanese education group Gakken, LG UPlus, South Korea’s private equity fund DS, and co-founder of the gaming company Nexon.
(English source / techcrunch, compiler / machine Xiaoyi, proofreading / small)
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