Messaging app Line could hook you up with a holographic girlfriend soon

Line also plans to compete with Apple's Siri with its AI assistant Clova, reports Tech in Asia

Messaging app Line is set to make a big push into artificial intelligence (AI), later this year rolling out a Siri-esque voice assistant and an Amazon Alexa-style smart speaker, the Japanese company announced yesterday at Mobile World Congress.

"AI is our most important project at Line, and represents a paradigm shift as dramatic as the rise of the smartphone a decade ago," said CEO Takeshi Idezawa.

Line’s answer to Siri is called Clova, short for "cloud virtual assistant". Its speaker, Wave, will also feature the AI assistant.

Both will launch "early summer" in Japan and South Korea.

Line also announced it has acquired a controlling stake in the Japanese start-up behind a holographic anime bot designed as a companion for lonely salarymen and anime-obsessed otaku. The financial details were not revealed.

Vinclu’s Gatebox hologram is oddly reminiscent of Dr Krieger’s waifu in Archer.

The coffee-maker-sized virtual bot gizmo, unveiled last year, costs $2,700.

"On the strength of its popular messenger and extensive content base – news, music, weather, translations, and more – Line has developed an unparallelled understanding of localisation in Asia, home to a fast-growing middle class of over 650 million people," said Line in a statement.

The big push into AI comes as Line is struggling in Facebook’s shadow.The app lost three million active users in the final three months of last year, stumbling from 220 to 217 million. Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp each have a billion users.

Clova will initially only integrate with Line and its broad suite of sister apps, but eventually the AI assistant will be able to plug into other apps and services.

This is an excerpt from Tech in Asia. You can read the full article here