An AI character was made an official resident of a busy central Tokyo district yesterday, with the virtual newcomer resembling a chatty seven-year-old boy. The boy named Shibuya Mirai does not exist physically, but he can have text conversations with humans on the widely used LINE messaging app. Tokyo's Shibuya Ward, an area popular with fashion-conscious young people, has given the character his own special residence certificate. This makes him Japan's first, and maybe the world's first, artificial intelligence bot to be granted a place on a real-life local registry. Mirai, whose name means "future" in Japanese, is supposed to be a first grader at an elementary school.

Mirai, whose name means 'future' in Japanese, is supposed to be a first grader at an elementary school. Pic/AFP