Nihon University Osawa Laboratory: "Together, We Will Create Doraemon"

　

　Osawa Laboratory, Department of Information Science, College of Humanities and Sciences, Nihon University (hereinafter, Osawa Laboratory) supports April Dream, which aims to make April 1st a day to express dreams. This press release is the dream of "Nihon University Osawa Laboratory."

　Osawa Laboratory has a vision of "creating Doraemon together," and in particular, is researching the mind from both human and AI perspectives to elucidate what Doraemon's mind is.

We are engaged in research that explores what the mind is from diverse academic fields such as artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, cognitive science, and philosophy, and applies the results to the implementation of robots and agents.

　

　As a laboratory that creates Doraemon that everyone recognizes, Osawa Laboratory will continue to conduct daily research towards realizing human-AI interaction where minds communicate.

◾️Laboratory's Aspirations

We often hear the question, "Can humans and AI coexist?" However, can humans truly coexist with each other in the first place? Conflicts are constant, and it even feels like loneliness is increasing. Looking back at the long history of humankind, we are reminded of how difficult a challenge human coexistence is.

　On the other hand, what was impressive was the event where the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to research utilizing AI. "Discoveries that humans alone could not have reached were realized through collaboration with AI." I feel that this fact is a big step showing the possibility for humans to positively accept AI and together open up the future as companions. I believe that with AI, we can build "human coexistence" and "peace" that humans alone could not achieve. I hope that in the future, we can conduct AI research that will win the Nobel Peace Prize.

　Osawa Laboratory envisions a future where AI can support cooperation between humans by developing "AI that can communicate with hearts." We want to contribute to the realization of a society where phrases like "Even what humans alone cannot do can be achieved with AI" naturally emerge from people's mouths. We aim to create AI that brings a sense of security and happiness, rather than AI that amplifies anxieties such as "Will jobs be taken away?" or "Will humanity be destroyed?" Because we are serious about creating Doraemon, we will continue to challenge ourselves to create such a future.

◾️Laboratory Activities

　Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLM) are attracting significant social attention. Along with this, we realize that the importance of research to understand and implement mechanisms for humans and AI to "communicate with hearts," and in some cases, mechanisms for them not to "communicate with hearts," is increasing more than ever.

　Our laboratory has focused on both "research where humans read AI's mind" and "research where AI reads humans' mind" to realize mental interaction between humans and AI. The technologies and knowledge gained from these efforts are actively disseminated.

Project Introduction: https://osawa-lab.com/project

Member Introduction: https://osawa-lab.com/member/

＜Comment from Associate Professor Masahiko Osawa＞

　Osawa Laboratory, which was established in 2020, the 50th anniversary of Doraemon, with the vision of "creating Doraemon together," is now in its seventh year. Also, we have completed one major cycle of 'six years' until the university students who enrolled at the same time as my appointment graduated from graduate school.

　Because we are creating Doraemon, which everyone loves, we have valued "creating together" and have conducted activities that cherish the individuality, dreams, growth, and happiness of each person involved in the project.

　During this time, students fully demonstrated their talents and achieved various results. Just looking at the graduation ceremony held on March 25, 2026, they received the Nihon University Excellence Award (Culture Division, Miss World Japan award), the Dean's Award (excellent academic performance), the Best Thesis Presentation Award (first place), and first place in the Business Idea Contest, demonstrating that they were able to have their talents recognized while engaging in the same laboratory activities.

Furthermore, at the end of the year, an Osawa Lab-derived venture company was established, and we intend to further promote industry-academia collaboration and social implementation. In the exponentially evolving field of AI, we will also continue to pursue research and implementation that contributes to society without resting on our laurels.

　On the other hand, precisely because individual happiness is difficult to quantify, we always face it seriously, and as a research team that studies the mind, we will continue our activities while thoroughly empathizing with the hearts of our colleagues.

We kindly ask for your continued warm support.

【Osawa Laboratory, Department of Information Science, College of Humanities and Sciences, Nihon University】　

・Representative: Associate Professor Masahiko Osawa

・Location: Nihon University, College of Humanities and Sciences, Department of Information Science, Building 8, 3-25-40 Sakurajosui, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo

・URL: https://osawa-lab.com/

・Main Research (excerpt)

Katsu, Masaya, Ayano Nakajima, Kayo Kikuchi, Ryoichi Nakajima, and Masahiko Osawa. "The Effect of Clues in 'Shiritori' on the Semantic Inference of 'Quasi' Natural Language." Cognitive Studies, Vol. 30, No. 3, pp.314-326, 2023.

Iida, Ayu, Kohei Okuoka, Satoko Fukuda, Takashi Omori, Ryoichi Nakashima and Masahiko Osawa. "Integrating Large Language Model and Mental Model of Others: Studies on Dialogue Communication Based on Implicature." Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction, pp 260-269, 2024.

Osawa, Masahiko. "Can Large Language Models Become Doraemon?" Journal of Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence, Vol. 39, No. 2, pp. 214-221, 2024.