This past week in Japan, a surprising story has emerged that a middle school teacher has married his Gatebox AI virtual girlfriend in an $18,000 wedding ceremony.
Here are some choice quotes from the news article from Reuters:
The hologram, which takes the shape of a 16-year-old girl with long, turquoise ponytails, “is a singing voice synthesizer featured in over 100,000 songs,” according to Crypton Future Media, the company behind the digital character.
Despite strong disapproval and complete embarrassment from his family, Kondo married the hologram in Tokyo on November 04. The wedding, which cost over $18,000, was attended by 40 guests — excluding all of Kondo’s immediate family members.
A light inside a two-foot-high $2,800 Amazon Echo-esque device, projects the bride into an image, was represented at the wedding by a “cat-sized stuffed doll.”
While he acknowledged the traditional path to marriage, Kondo told Reuters Television that, “the shape of happiness and love is different for each person.
Here is a promotional video from the company that makes the virtual girlfriend box, named Gatebox.
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