Use of the term "Artificial Intelligence (AI)" seems to be the current trend nowadays, but with even the proverbial kitchen sinks being referred to as AI, let us as true scholars try to clarify what this phrase means before we attempt to delve deeply into related activities at Aobayama Campus, lest we get lost in a twilight zone filled with Big Data, Smart Speakers and other buzzwords.

AI means a man-made computational system which depicts intellect, like those shown by humans upon problem-solving through combination of pattern recognition and other faculties (senses) we possess. One of the famous AI projects today is IBM's Watson, a "cognitive computing" effort that in recent years has gained press by collaborating with high-end womenswear brand Marchesa for an "AI" dress.

However, specifically for AI efforts at Tohoku University's Department of Communications Engineering, the information processing thrust has in particular targeted speech communication and synthesis… that is, when analogized to the human intellect, our brain using voice as produced by the throat and mainly perceived by the ear among other senses for verbal exchanges. We asked Dr. Nose about the approach he is taking.