SoraNews24 —Japan News—

Bringing you yesterday's news from Japan and Asia, today.

TOP

» Internet
TOP

• Japan
» New Japanese social media platform promises positive responses only for users’ posts【Video】

Featured

Weird
Studio Ghibli
Jobs

New Japanese social media platform promises positive responses only for users’ posts【Video】

Casey Baseel Jun 28, 2020
Tweet

But won’t there always be terrible people online? Not on this social media network.

Social media is pretty amazing, isn’t it? What an age we live in, where anyone with an Internet connection can instantly connect to people around the globe, allowing them to make new friends from lands both near and far.

It’s a double-edged sword, though, since social media also instantly connects you with the world’s jerks, meanies, and a whole bunch of other undesirables who deserve less delicately phrased titles. But there’s a new social media platform in Japan that promises nothing but good vibes and positive responses to everything you post.

Called Under World, the platform’s launch trailer starts with its narrator gravely declaring “2020. All over the world, social media fatigue thrives,” before revealing “We found a revolutionary way.”

“All of the comments here are positive! This is the emotionally supportive social media platform that everyone has dreamt of,” Under World’s announcement declares. So do the designers plan to achieve this by a rigorous policing of what sort of responses people are allowed to post? Is there a personality test you have to pass before you can sign up for an account, with only those of kind and considerate character being granted access?

Nope. Under World’s secret is that it’s actually not one integrated platform, but a whole bunch of them, with each one containing only one human. After you sign up for an account, you can start posting things, but all of the responses you’ll get are from different AI programs, all of which will have nothing but nice, supportive things to say to you.

In the demonstration video, the human user posts “I’m so tired,” and the Under World AI profiles are quick to respond with:

“Hang in there! You can do it!”
“Cheer up!”
“I love your smile, and I look forward to the day when it returns.”
“No matter how hard it rains, eventually the sun will come out.”
“Get some sleep. You’ll feel better in the morning.”
“Did someone say something mean to you? You’re always doing your best, and I’m sure there are people who appreciate you too…like I do.”

While they’re all nice things, there’s a surprising amount of variety in the exact tones being used, making it really feel like a large number of individual people are on your side.

When creating an Under World account (which can be done here), you’ll have to link it to an existing Twitter account. However, there are two things to be aware of. First, the platform is only going to be in operation for three weeks. Second, the Under World project is a collaboration with the Sword Art Online novel/anime/video game franchise, which largely focuses on technology running amok, so there may be some kind of twist coming at the end of the three weeks, but in the meantime it’s nice to see AI acting cheerful and friendly.

Source: Under World via 4Gamer via Jin
Top image: YouTube/876TV
Insert images: YouTube/876TV, Under World
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

You can follow Casey on Twitter, where he’s generally a pretty positive guy.