Dentsu to Pilot AI Avatar Platform at Yoichi Ochiai Summer School 2026

Dentsu Innovation Initiative is collaborating with Yoichi Ochiai to develop and demonstrate an AI avatar agent system at the Yoichi Ochiai Summer School 2026 in Kagoshima Prefecture. The project is based on the Self-Sovereign Information Environment framework proposed by Dentsu Innovation Initiative, Panasonic Holdings Corporation, and others, and is intended to enable elementary and junior high school students to co-create with multiple AI systems. It will test mechanisms designed to avoid directly sharing students' personally identifiable information with external AI services and to record experiences and relationships through NFTs, alongside a proposed system involving Web3 personal pages, QR-code-enabled business cards, and Sony-supported hardware wallets.

AI Avatar Agent Pilot

• ▪Dentsu Innovation Initiative, in collaboration with Yoichi Ochiai, will pilot an AI avatar platform at the Yoichi Ochiai Summer School 2026.
• ▪The Yoichi Ochiai Summer School 2026 is an educational program for elementary and junior high school students held in Kagoshima Prefecture from July 24 to July 26, 2026.
• ▪The pilot project upgrades AI avatars into agents that connect students with multiple AI systems based on their interests, strengths, and weaknesses.

Self-Sovereign Information Environment

• ▪The Self-Sovereign Information Environment is a decentralized framework proposed by Dentsu Innovation Initiative and Panasonic Holdings Corporation.
• ▪The Self-Sovereign Information Environment enables individuals to manage their own data and digital identities while securely sharing only chosen information.

Digital Fermentation Concept

• ▪Digital Fermentation is a concept where students actively interpret, select, and assign meaning to unexpected expressions and questions emerging from AI interactions.
• ▪The pilot project will test a co-creative process based on Yoichi Ochiai's concept of Digital Fermentation.

Web3 Educational Applications

• ▪The project will verify a framework for recording student experiences and relationships as Friendship NFTs and Graduation Certificate NFTs.
• ▪The project will verify a system that would enable students to continue exploration and interaction through QR-code-enabled business cards connected to a Web3 personal page and a hardware wallet supported by Sony Corporation.

Privacy-Preserving AI Architecture

• ▪The project will verify a mechanism that prevents direct disclosure of personally identifiable information when students access external AI services.
• ▪Under the proposed mechanism, AI avatar agents would request only the necessary tasks from external AI services without directly sharing students' personally identifiable information.