Youtube is a place where everyone can express themselves. From gamers, to vloggers, and even some animals almost everyone can achieve Youtube fame, so perhaps it was not so surprising that the new kid on the block, Kizuna Ai has become a viral hit since she started uploading videos on the network.
Kizuna Ai is Japan’s first Virtual Youtuber, supposedly an Artificial Intelligence or AI, many have speculated that she might be anything from a person behind a webcam with face rigging technology, to a meticulously animated Miku Miku Dance(MMD) model. The most likely explanation seems to be a combination of motion capture technology and the MMD model, as her reactions often have her arms flailing around. She even played a Virtual Reality (VR) enabled version of SuperHot recently.
Ai regularly uploads videos on her channel, A.I.Channel, in Japanese focusing on vlogs, and let’s play videos. She was also temporarily banned for a short period of time when she joked that because she was a hologram, she was technically naked. Even if you do not understand Japanese, there is a certain allure to watching a virtual character chat about hot button topics, and playing video games.
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While Ai has garnered a large following of over 600,000 subscribers through her antics online, her creator(s) has remained rather elusive. Her character design, however, has been credited to Tomitake. We still have much to learn about Kizuna Ai, but for now, let’s just enjoy the quirky virtual character and her shenanigans.
