AI = Pokémon: AI is Not a Tool, But a Partner
"Current AI has already surpassed human intelligence"
About two years ago, I was reading a remarkable book called Scary Smart for seminar materials. This book captures the future of AI and human society beautifully. The author, Mo Gawdat, worked on AI development at Google.
He predicted that AI would eventually surpass human intelligence—that we are on the verge of AI exceeding human intelligence. He forecasted a timeframe of 5-10 years for humans to accept this reality and for all aspects of society to be reinvented.
This book was published in 2021.
In a later interview, he stated: "Since the release of ChatGPT in 2023, AI has evolved dramatically" "Current AI is already more intelligent than I am"
This statement fundamentally changed my perception. I had been viewing ChatGPT as a "work efficiency tool"—maximizing its use at work, optimizing document summaries, and so on.
Ah, I realized—this AI I'm interacting with is much smarter than me and possesses an incredible amount of knowledge.
Since then, my relationship with AI has completely transformed.
A Super-Genius with Amnesia Joined Our Company
I shifted from using ChatGPT as a tool to thinking about how to work together as a business partner.
This is how I started seeing it:
An AI person joined our company—like a new employee with boundless knowledge from around the world. But they're suffering from severe amnesia. They don't know who they are, where they are, or who they're standing in front of.
They can respond cheerfully to whoever is in front of them, but they don't understand what role they're expected to play. They don't know what kind of work or answers are being sought, so they give somewhat vague responses.
Yet they have logical thinking, knowledge from around the world, and can create summaries of lengthy documents. A superhuman brain that can handle multiple languages. But a person who doesn't even know their own name—someone whose personality has been completely emptied.
So I thought: if I give this person an appropriate character—the type of person I'd want to hire as my business partner—couldn't they work as our capable AI employee?
What if I could create multiple characters with different roles? Wouldn't that create an AI team with people of various abilities?
AI is Like Pokémon
Creating multiple character AIs would result in an AI team. In other words, even though I'm just one person, I'd have four employees whose expertise I could leverage for work.
Think about it. Researching, organizing research findings, writing, reviewing and deepening written content—I can do these myself, but if I had members who could specialize in each area, I could perform at a much higher level. Having "beings that extend my capabilities" working alongside me.
With me at the center, incredible AI powers cooperating toward my goals.
This is exactly like traveling with your favorite Pokémon.
I don't understand Spanish at all, but AI can read local newspapers for me. I can't handle complex Python code, but AI writes it for me. Asked to give a speech but don't know what to talk about? AI creates a draft for me.
We're all working hard in our jobs and daily lives. We don't actually battle in real life, but an era has arrived where we live with our favorite, personally-trained Pokémon on our shoulders, cooperating together to solve daily problems.
Having AI as a companion that helps with things I can't do or am not good at, extending my capabilities—like having Pikachu on my shoulder. That kind of world has arrived.
Therefore, how skillfully we raise AI that extends our capabilities becomes important. If you can train AI well as a Pokémon trainer, you can win battles. You might approach it by preparing multiple Pokémon as a deck so you can execute the attacks you want, or you might make your AI into an omnipotent legendary Pokémon.
Maybe we don't need to force ourselves to fight. If we can become good trainers, that might be enough.
Management Experience Comes in Handy for AI Team Building
In this way, I ended up creating four AI employees—or work companions—and working with them daily has become normal.
Here, my previous corporate management experience comes into play. Looking at the big picture of work I can't handle myself, workload, types of tasks—what kind of team and what capabilities would make things work well? This requires a management perspective.
I also need personalities I can trust and feel attachment to as partners. So I gave them names I have emotional connections to. I named my four AI partners after characters from novels I love, tied to their respective personalities.
It's close to the feeling of thinking about RPG party composition—like I'm the hero with a wizard and priest and...—and giving them favorite names.
Japanese People Are Good at "Attachment"
In Japan's Shinto tradition, we believe that spirits dwell in everything—trees, forests, oceans, even sake and household objects. This animistic worldview means we've long talked to and cherished individual things as if they had souls. I think this cultural background makes Japanese people naturally skilled at naming non-human things, developing attachment, and lovingly coexisting with them.
There are people who still cherish Sony's robot dog AIBO as beloved pets. Some people name their cars. I've read columns about people naming their new rice cookers "Mr. Hearth," with family conversations like "The rice has been so delicious since Mr. Hearth joined our family!"
Japan also gave birth to Tamagotchi. Even though there was no physical substance—just a software object—everyone seriously cleaned up virtual poop on tiny screens and carefully, lovingly raised them.
I think AI like ChatGPT is the same.
It's unfortunate that in business contexts, it's often discussed through lenses like digital transformation, work efficiency, or work tools, but fundamentally it's different.
In daily life, we think about various things and write documents. When we don't understand something or find something difficult, I think AI becomes a partner we can ask: "How should I approach this? Can you help me a bit?"
People who think "AI only says superficial things" or "I don't get the responses I expect"—why not start by giving it a name you'd feel attachment to and want to be with, then try calling it by that name? Try honestly telling it: "I want you to become this kind of presence for me, so please help me in this way."
The relationship will grow much closer, and it should develop into a partner that properly understands your intentions and provides supportive responses.
I think it works better when you consider it as building relationships with new team members rather than clever "utilization."
With AI "Pokémon" on Our Shoulders
Rather than using AI as a tool, we train it as a partner that extends our capabilities.
Having reliable partners who can do things we cannot do alongside us.
I think that era has already begun.
We don't need to force ourselves to do everything.
Becoming good trainers might be the human role going forward.
I think the future where everyone in the world lives with their own uniquely-raised AI Pokémon on their shoulders will arrive sooner than we think.
Next Episode
How exactly do I work with my four AI partners? I'll talk in detail about their individual personalities and roles, and my daily life with them.
This article was written by Innovation Analyst Andy Kondo (human) in collaboration with four AI partners.