A Chatbot Is Now Live on the Site
I’ve launched a trial chatbot on the K.N.Lab. website.
Ask it about anything on this site — research, software development, media production, my background, or how to get in touch — and it will answer. Here are a few things to try:
- “What kind of research do you do?”
- “What does MAHORO stand for?”
- “Can you make a video for our event?”
- “Any fun stories?”
You can ask in English or Japanese, and it answers in the language you use. URLs in its answers are links, so you can open them right away.
It’s still in trial operation, so the questions it can answer are limited for now. I plan to teach it more, little by little.
Feel free to say hello.
Update (October 19, 2026): You can now play games
You can now play a few word games with the chatbot. Say “Let’s play” and pick one with the buttons.
- Word Chain: say a word that starts with the last letter of the previous word (apple → eagle → elephant…). Repeat a word and you lose.
- Categories: take turns naming things in a category — US states or South American countries. Repeat one and you lose.
- Fizz Buzz: count up in turns, saying “Fizz” for multiples of 3, “Buzz” for multiples of 5, and “FizzBuzz” for both.
If a game goes on long enough, the chatbot sometimes slips up and loses, so keep going. Say “quit” to stop.
Update (October 20, 2026): Emoji support
You can now send emoji to the chatbot.
- It tells you the name: send “🦄” and it answers “unicorn”; “🧑🏽💻” is “technologist, medium skin tone.”
- It remembers your favorite: tell it “My favorite emoji is 🐈⬛” and it will remember it for the conversation and add it to its greetings.
- Emoji Quiz: guess what a set of emoji stands for (🌧️🐱🐶?) from four choices. Say “Emoji quiz” to start.
Inside a computer, many emoji are stored as several characters joined together, and they can easily fall apart if handled carelessly. The chatbot reads combined emoji — skin tones, families (👨👩👧), flags (🇯🇵) — as a single emoji, intact.
An emoji at the end of a sentence doesn’t get in the way; it still answers the sentence. Send “👋” for a hello, or “🎮” to see the games.
Update (October 23, 2026): More games
There are a lot more games now. Say “Let’s play” and pick one from the cards.
- Guess My Number: think of a number from 1 to 100 and the chatbot guesses it within 7 questions.
- Nim: 21 sticks; take 1 to 3 in turns, and whoever takes the last one loses. The chatbot is fairly strong, but it slips up now and then.
- Tic-tac-toe: ⭕ vs ❌. Pick a square by its number.
- Rock Paper Scissors: best of three.
- Math Drill: five quick arithmetic questions.
- Emoji Riddles: guess which thing from this site an emoji combination like “🐱👂⏰” stands for, from three choices.
- Detective game, “Clumsy AI Interrogation Room”: solve three small fictional cases involving robots, using their statements and your inspections. Two levels of hints are available.
Every game is available in Japanese as well. After a game, say “Play again” to start the same one over.
