When I was in second grade of elementary school, my father brought home a hobby computer called the MSX2, which had an impact on me. Since junior high school, I have been writing programming in BASIC and C languages, and have also been familiar with PC communications and MML, which is a music description language. I made and played games by myself, so I naturally became interested in programming.

I studied computer science in college and did research in neuroscience in graduate school. I started to become interested in AI, which would evolve further in the future, and wanted to study the brain, which is the ultimate computer.

I joined a SNS marketing company where I had worked as an intern and was involved in the development of a blog search system. I thought I could further improve the search engine library we were using, so I tried to use an open-source full-text search engine called "Senna," but found out it didn't support the environment at the time. So, in order to make it compatible, I developed a patch for "Senna," and received an invitation from Mr. Mori, who was developing "Senna," to change jobs to the IT company he belongs to.

I was responsible for the development of full-text search-related systems, including "Senna." At the same time, I solo-developed the basic system, site operation, and function additions for Nico Nico Daihyakka, which was introduced to me by Mr. Hiroyuki Nishimura. During this time, I became famous on the internet as "Gunyara-kun" (laughs).

I started my own business in 2010 and developed and operated web systems. Actually, I had been aiming to become a certified public accountant, and was interested in running a company. I joined a large IT company in 2011 and joined a team developing social games for overseas. In 2013, I was assigned to San Francisco. In 2014, I co-founded a game app platform development company in America, and in 2018, sold it to a major news app operation company. I worked on the backend server development of the news app at the acquiring company.

Yes. I joined by invitation from Mr. Mori, who set up the Human Interaction Research Institute at Reazon. When I saw the news that "ReazonSpeech" was released, I thought "ah, this is Mori-san" and contacted him, and things progressed smoothly from there. I was amazed that "ReazonSpeech" is a highly accurate Japanese voice recognition model. Working for a growing company is the most fun, and I wanted to do something interesting with Mori-san, so I decided to change jobs to Reazon.

The main job of the Human Interaction Research Institute is to announce the results of our research to the world, create communities to share the research process and results, and look for colleagues to conduct research together by accelerating the research cycle and making practical use of the research results.

As part of this effort, we are developing a multilingual communication support app and collecting the necessary data for it. Currently, Reazon has multinational members, and they are gradually beginning to feel the need for communication in languages other than Japanese. For example, by making it possible to convert and translate in real-time, such as from English to Japanese or from Japanese to English, we aim to eliminate language barriers and eventually release it outside the company.

Currently, we are mainly collecting voice data, which was used in "ReazonSpeech," and collaborating with the Human Interaction Research Institute, which has expertise in voice recognition. In addition, we are collecting TV recording data because we believe it is better to consider the movement of the speaker's face and mouth. We are using a wide range of data to be able to convert anyone's speaking style into text.

The prototype for detecting real-time voice has been completed, but we still have steps to take to make it an application. First, we plan to develop a minutes app that does not require real-time communication. It's an application where you record the sound of a meeting, recognize that sound and convert it to text, create summaries and action items after correcting any typos, and view the results.

Since the Research Planning Department is currently run by one person, it is difficult to handle daily work. The Research Planning Department was originally called the AI Promotion Department. We were approached by various business companies who wanted to utilize AI, but we are struggling to decide where to focus.

We currently have an intern and new graduates who will be assigned soon, but we still need more staff. We need to focus on recruiting AI talent so that our organization can have around 10 people. To that end, we also want to work on technology PR. We want to expand recognition by blogging about our current activities, exhibiting at technology exhibitions, and so on, after devising a strategy. We renamed the AI Promotion Department to the Research Planning Department to focus on organizing.

Someone who wants to go out to eat together (laughs). There are often cases where we cannot work well even if someone is excellent. You can teach skills later, so I would like to meet people who can work together as companions.

I think our strength is that we aim for ""aggressive AI development."" We don't want to use AI to lower costs, but to use it to increase sales. We want to release an app using AI and make a profit from it. Instead of using AI to reduce personnel, we want to use AI to create enjoyable things.

First of all, I want to create an environment where I can make the image of ""the guy who is developing the multilingual communication support app"" permeate within and outside the company, and to have others consider consulting the Research Planning Department for their projects. To that end, in the AI-related information sharing chat within the company, we are spreading AI-related information found on overseas news sites and SNS to expand technical knowledge and raise awareness of ""Suenaga is a person who is strong in this field"".

Since the mission of developing a multilingual app is clear and bold, there may be various approaches, so I plan to continue trying various approaches.

It is an entity that is interesting to people who can clearly define what they want to do and can challenge their dreams and goals without regard to external expectations. This is also a characteristic of the owning company, but if you can understand it well after explaining it, you can easily take on long-term challenges without being pressured by the market. The company has also started many new businesses, and I also want to make proposals that make me feel excited.

I want to develop a multilingual communication support app and create a world where there are no language barriers. The language barrier was also something I felt when I was in the US, so I would be happy if I could participate in activities that could eliminate my stress points.

Also, I'm interested in using AI for dating apps. Isn't it fun to have an app that suggests three food or romantic candidates when you answer a question for your preference-related questions? (laughs). I also want to challenge myself in such interesting fields.

In addition, I am considering contributing to service improvements by collaborating with other business divisions at Reazon. I feel that career design has become more difficult than before, and I don't know where I will be in five years. I want to enjoy working while looking at my feet step by step, keeping a long-term perspective in mind.

I want the members who have joined the Research Planning Department to grow into talents who will be in high demand even if they try to change jobs. In this department, you can acquire cutting-edge technology and skills. I want them to enjoy their daily work while polishing their human skills and become colleagues who want to work together even after changing jobs.