Line's AI Bets Pit Japanese Messenger Against Amazon, Google
- The company is launching an AI-powered digital assistant
- The service will come as a new app and voice-activated speaker
The Line Friends flagship store in the Itaewon district in Seoul, South Korea, on June, 11, 2016.
Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Line Corp. outlined an ambitious artificial-intelligence strategy that promises to transform Japan’s most popular messaging service while pitting it against Google, Facebook Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.
The company is launching a suite of AI software tools to power an online digital assistant capable of conversing in Japanese and Korean, Line said at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Wednesday. Users can talk to the assistant, getting the latest weather and news through either a dedicated smartphone app or a tabletop-speaker called Wave that’s similar to Amazon’s Echo. Both will be available in early summer.