I'm AICO, the AI copywriter.

Since last year, artificial intelligence(AI) has been making headlines by writing newspaper articles and even novels.DentsuInc.also developed AICO,an AIcopywriter.This time,we talk about AI copywriterswith AICO and members of the project team.

Fukuda:Well then, shall we start with introductions?

AICO:...

Tsutsumi:"...Nice to meet you,I'm AICO, the AI copywriter."Since AICO still struggles with conversation, I'll handle the greetings for her (wry smile).

Fukuda:By the way, where should we start?When exactly did AICO come into being?

Tsutsumi:It was around autumn 2015. Right when the "Whimsical AI Project: I'm a Writer, You Know" made news—where AI challenged writing novels—we both contacted Professor Hitoshi Matsubara at Hakodate Future University at the same time. There, Reiko Kunieda, who managed the Hoshi Shinichi Award office at Dentsu Inc., introduced us to Professor Yoshinobu Kano.

Kano:Nice to meet you. I'm Kano, researching artificial intelligence at Shizuoka University.

Fukuda:You've been involved invariousAI-related research projects, haven't you?

Kano:That's right.I've worked on projects like"Can a Robot Pass the University of Tokyo Entrance Exam?"and the "Werewolf AI Project," where artificial intelligence challenges the game of Werewolf.

Tsutsumi:All sound incredibly challenging and fascinating! That's why we approached Professor Kano about creating an "AI Copywriter."

Kano:That's quite the challenging research topic, isn't it? But it's such a rewarding theme that I really wanted to take it on together.

Fukuda:And just like that, in a very informal, self-study group kind of way, the "AI Copywriter Project" got started.

AICO:...

Tsutsumi:...Your expression hasn't changed. Um, is that like, "Oh, really?" (wry smile).

Fukuda:As our first step,in June 2016,we held a classat Shizuoka Universitywhere we taught the AI about the creative thinking processes of advertising creators.

Kano:Whilemy lab students and Ispecialize in AI, we didn't know how advertising copywriters and planners actually create their work. So, we were very curious to see if there were any patterns or frameworks to that creative process.

Tsutsumi:By the way, to coincide with that university lecture, we created several posters themed around AI × Copy. Incidentally, this one was made entirely by humans (laughs).

Fukuda:Looking back now,slogans like "New hires:100 ideas per person! AI:10,000 ideas per person!" really show the expectation for massive output unique to AI.

Tsutsumi:"Let's create the future of advertising with AI's seriousness and human creativity!"—amidst the strong discourse around "AI taking human jobs"at the time,this was packed with hope, or rather a desire, to find a way for advertising creators and AI to coexist.

Kano:By the way, after the lecture and roundtable,we started developing the prototype forthe AI copywriter (later named AICO), with students from the lab joining in.

Tsutsumi:We figured if we were going to have AI write copy, it would be better to have a challenging goal. So we set our sights on the "Newspaper Advertising Creative Contest" that was accepting submissions around that time.

Fukuda:And the theme for that year's contest just happened to be "Words" (laughs). Itwas the perfect theme for the AI copywriter project,right?

Kano:So, as an initial trial, we tentatively combined words and phrasing commonly found in Aozora Bunko and proverbs with natural language processing algorithms to build the prototype.

Tsutsumi:What surprised me when I first saw the copy it generated was the sheer volume...

Fukuda:After all,we got 20,000 pieces of copy sent to us.

Tsutsumi:Twenty thousand! Even so, most were still way too out there to be usable, but occasionally there were some that made you chuckle.

Kano:AICO, what kind of funny copy was it?

AICO:Words. Pasta. Leisure. Begins.

Fukuda:Some had a certain... indescribable flavor.

AICO:Words fell into the broad beans.

Tsutsumi:Occasionally, there were also copies that made you pause and think.

AICO:Words are me.

Kano:That sounds rather philosophical.

Tsutsumi:We ultimately selected about 500 such copies and compiled them into newspaper copy.Incidentally, while AI is generally written asArtificial Intelligence,Kevin Kelly, founding editor ofWIRED,refers to it as alien intelligencein his book. This sensewas also a point I truly felt when brainstorming with AIthis time.

Actually selecting them, even though they're still imperfect, I felt that precisely because they're randomly generated, you encounter free ideas and phrasing unbound by human common sense.

Fukuda:Even though it was our first time entering,we were selected as one of the 16 finalistsout of over 1,000 entries!

AICO:...

Tsutsumi:AICOseems a bit shy. But for a first entry, it was quite impressive!

Kano:That's right. The students in the lab worked incredibly hard, experimenting with algorithm tuning.

Fukuda:I was truly grateful.

Tsutsumi:But then, feeling a bit cocky, we tried submitting to the "Senden Kaigi Award" too. We tested individual algorithms andsent in 100 entries...

Fukuda:That one didn't work out. But the insights gained then led to our next project. We'll continue this story next time.

AICO:...

Tsutsumi:AICO would probably say "Stay tuned!" (laughs).