Dai-chan, the Shiba Inu dog character, appears in the "Talking with Dai-chan" service provided by the prefectural government through the Line messaging app. Since September, powered by the generative artificial intelligence ChatGPT, Dai-chan has answered questions in the distinctive Osaka dialect. [...] But the dog character has gained attention online for other reasons. When someone asked if the Osaka Kansai Expo had been called off, Dai-chan said, "Sadly, it has been cancelled, although everyone in Osaka was looking forward to it." Although problems have plagued preparations for the expo, the event is scheduled to run from April 13 to October 13, 2025. That brings up another flub in the chat service. In another exchange, Dai-chan erroneously said the expo would be held from April 7 to Oct. 8 in 2023. The dog character's responses have drawn reactions on social media that include such words as "bizarre answers" and "a lot of holes and slip-ups."
