AI records oral history of 'comfort women'

Interactive biography allows viewers to 'converse' with 94-year-old survivor

After years of efforts, US and Chinese researchers and peace activists have developed an interactive system that uses artificial intelligence to narrate the biography of a Chinese "comfort woman" and enables viewers to have a "conversation" with her.

The project, The Eternal Testimony of Chinese "Comfort Women", is based on interviews with a 94-year-old survivor from Hunan province, Peng Zhuying. It allows viewers to ask Peng questions about her life experiences and hear responses in a real-time, lifelike conversation, its creators said.

Calling it "a powerful tool for history and anti-war education", Peipei Qiu, executive director of the project and a professor of Chinese and Japanese at Vassar College in New York, said the interactive system revolutionizes the concept of oral history.