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Although Oosone Hiroyuki’s time in the INNO-vation Program had come to a close, he continued to work on developing his scenario creation AI BunCho. BunCho had been fleshed out to automatically generate novel titles, synopses, and plot lines based on inputted keywords. Oosone then looked at updating the accuracy of the AI itself. He’s also planning on adding a function that will automatically generate entire stories based on plot lines fed into the software.
Oosone hopes to realize a future in which anyone can write their own novels using BunCho. “I think there are a lot of people out there who aren’t able to write novels, even if they have the desire to do so,” Oosone explained. “BunCho can help people like that. Once you’ve written something, you gain a sense of accomplishment and you can have a lot of fun showing and discussing your completed works to your friends. Everyone has their own experiences and struggles. Using those as a basis can certainly generate a variety of interesting novels.”
Oosone isn’t only considering traditional novels as a means of expression. During his time in the INNO-vation Program, he also tried his hand at developing a visual novel game using his database. He also put effort into an AI-powered manga-generation function. With this function, users think of their own plot lines and the AI uses them to generate images that look like real manga. Oosone’s currently in the testing phases of this feature.
“For manga the AI can generate images, so it can really help people like me that aren’t very good at writing the story content express themselves. If you have an idea about the story or setting, you can tap into the power of AI and create something your own way, whether it be a novel, game or manga. I’m hoping that’s how my work will be seen,” Oosone envisioned.
Characters can be recognized and created from automatically generated text. (Japanese only)
Layout of the manga-creation function.
Oosone first launched BunCho in May of 2020. By the time he had landed himself in the INNO-vation Program, it was already in its 4th year of development. For those thinking of applying to the program, he left some words of wisdom. “Since it’s something you’re going to be spending a long time with, I think it’s best to choose a theme that you can enjoy working on.” Indeed, it takes time to research and develop innovative technologies, and Oosone’s message to the world is that having fun along the way is the most important key to success.