Kyushu University, Itoshima City, and Fujitsu Begin Field Trial Using Continual Learning AI to Facilitate Relocation
Takes social acceptance of AI into account when matching people wanting to move to Itoshima with candidate locations

Abstract:
Fukuoka, Itoshima, and Kawasaki, Japan, August 24, 2016 – The Fujitsu Social Mathematics Joint Research Unit within the Institute of Mathematics for Industry at Kyushu University, Itoshima City in Fukuoka Prefecture, and Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. today announced the start of a joint field trial that, using a form of artificial intelligence known as “continual learning” to gradually learn human preferences, seeks to match people wanting to relocate to Itoshima to appropriate candidate locations within the city.

Major disasters can bring secondary disasters and a variety of other outcomes, such as impassable roads, and conditions can change dramatically in a short period of time. This creates an urgent need to quickly formulate schedules for recovery work and to take swift action. However, since conditions can change even as plans are being formulated, it is difficult to perform the calculations based on massive volumes of data in real time needed to propose an ideal plan that reflects those changing conditions.

Interest in relocating to the countryside is rising, and Itoshima officials are receiving an increasing number of inquiries about relocating to the area. When people wanting to move there consider where within the municipality they should reside, however, they have found it difficult to obtain information on different locations, which at times has led to a low level of satisfaction among those who relocated.

In this field trial designed to help match potential new residents to candidate locations within Itoshima, continual learning AI is trained on the preferences of users seeking to relocate. It presents, based on those preferences, day-to-day information on such locations that are deemed appropriate for the user, and then seeks to provide appropriate matches through an iterative process in which the user rates the locations presented. Through this trial, the parties seek to develop AI that takes social acceptance into consideration and to build a system for matching people wanting to relocate with locations where they will feel a high level of satisfaction.

* The link on Kyushu University Press Release(August 24, 2016)
* The link on Fujitsu Laboratories Press Release(August 24, 2016)