Japan Lower House Roll Call Conducted by AI Voice for 1st Time

Tokyo, March 13 (Jiji Press)--Japan's House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the country's parliament, used an artificial intelligence-generated voice to conduct a roll call during an open vote for the first time at a plenary session on Friday.

Conventionally, the roll call had been conducted by staff of the secretariat of the Lower House. Following an agreement of ruling and opposition parties, the automated voice was introduced to ease staff burdens.

The system was first used during the vote on a dismissal motion against Tetsushi Sakamoto of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party as chairman of the chamber's Budget Committee.

Male and female voices will be used alternately. In the event of a malfunction, staff will conduct the roll call.

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