A.I. Channel

''This article is about the franchise led by Kizuna AI. For exhaustive information about her, visit her entry page.''



A.I. Channel (アイチャネル aichaneru) is the name of the main YouTube channel in which virtual YouTuber Kizuna AI releases the bulk of her content. It also encompasses the media franchise that expands to four YouTube channels and a broad presence on several video platforms and social networks.

History
Initially, A.I. Channel contained both Kizuna AI's original videos and her gaming playthroughs, but eventually the gaming content was splintered into a new channel appropriately called A.I. Games in March 2017.

In June 2019, as part of the celebrations of Kizuna AI's third birthday, a third channel dedicated exclusively for Chinese audiences was created. A.I. Channel China debuted on the Chinese platform Bilibili. A mirror on Youtube was created on August of the same year.

In June 2020, Love-chan and Aipii were given a new YouTube channel.

Characters
In the beginning, Kizuna AI was the only character appearing on the channel and this feature was instrumental as part of her character, as one of her goals was to finally be able to have friends beyond the white space she was trapped. Eventually this quest resulted in the apparition of several characters and interactions with real and virtual entities alike.

Kizuna AI
Main article: Kizuna AI

Kizuna AI (キズナアイ) or simply known as AI-chan (アイちゃん) is the self-proclaimed first Virtual Youtuber. An Intelligent Super A.I. who wants to connect with the humans via YouTube.

Michael, Tiffany, John and Twintails girl
They are a pack of generic 3D characters for Unity that Ai-chan bought to cope with her loneliness. Ai-chan was frustrated after discovering the characters cannot talk nor move, but still she still gave them names and they appeared in her videos as fans of her, with Ai-chan providing the voices for all of them.

Random Word Generator
The Random Word Generator box (ランダムワード生成器 Randomu Waado Seiseiki) is arguably the first character to interact with Kizuna Ai and was given a prevalent role on many of her videos. The Random box was brought to life after AI did a video demonstrating the use of the 3D modelling program Makebox. Initially the box had a passive role as the place Ai-chan collected her ideas from videos or as a portal through other worlds.

Eventually the box become sentient and was the responsible for many of Ai's misadventures, like the destruction of her many laboratory facilities. On the series dedicated to AI and the apparition of her new variants, the Random Word Generator spoke for the first time.

Black AI
A corruption on Kizuna AI's programming, Kizuna AI Black (キズナアイ(ブラック)) or simply Black AI (ブラックアイ) is the negative doppelganger of Kizuna AI. She originally wore a faded version of Ai-chan's attires but now she wears a similar dress but in a black scheme. Black is the complete opposite to Kizuna AI's personality she is cool, tsundere and lazy. In a competition between Ai-chan and Black, Black AI won the game and gained the ownership of A.I. Channel. But at the end she chose to let Ai-chan to run the channel since producing videos is too much work for her.

Black sporadically appears doing videos, livestreams or covering Ai-chan's songs.

Mii-chan
Mii-chan (みーちゃん) is an upd8 employee that helps Ai-chan with doing things in real life, such as cooking tutorials. She was also the person in charge of creating the merchandise designs for A.I. Channel. She never reveals her face in the videos.

Mii-chan is not very good at cooking, but still she is able to do tasty meals with the help of Ai-chan.

The Four Kizuna AI
Further information: Kizuna AI

Prior to her 3rd birthday, it was hinted that Ai-chan had four active versions of her, each one in charge of the many aspects of channel. Apart from Ai-chan, there is one in charge of the channel edition, one that plays the videogames, and one that sings and dances. Through the series called Kizuna AI's Everyday (キズナアイな日々 Kizuna Ai na Hibi), each one of the three versions evolved and attained a different and definite personality. In the beginning all of them were exactly like Ai-chan and referred as such, but with a different voice, but then they received differentiation markers to express better her personalities. On 14 June 2020 Aipii and Love-chan received officially new 2D avatars, ending their direct connection with Kizuna AI but gaining different personalities and identities.

Aside Ai-chan, the rest of the Four Kizuna AI (4人のキズナアイ yonnin no Kizuna AI) are:

Love-chan (#)
Main article: Love-chan Love-chan (Loveちゃん) is the first Kizuna AI that "installed" herself a new personality pack. She is more mature and calm but often got prank by the other two Kizuna AI. She regularly refers to herself as "cool beauty". She loves Kamen Rider a lot. She was for a time referred just as Kizuna AI and Ai-chan, but eventually she was given a number sign shaped blue hairpin and the nickname Love-chan to differentiate her from the other Kizuna AI. On 8 April 2020, she was given her own Twitter account and a YouTube channel for her and her "sister" Aipii. Her birthday is 7 June, the day she installed her new voice pack. On 14 June 2020, Love-chan was given her own 2D avatar and she is no longer called Kizuna AI.

Aipii (*)
Main article: Aipii Aipii (あいぴー) is the Kizuna Ai in charge of A.I. Games with frequent cameos on the main channel. She was the second Kizuna AI to "install" a different voice. Her character is energetic and cheerful. She is more frequently shown wearing the A.I. Games suit. In the beginning she was called Ai-chan and Kizuna Ai like the other three as she is technically as such, but eventually she was given a six points asterisk shaped yellow hairpin and the nickname Aipii to differentiate her from the other Kizuna AI. On 8 April 2020, she was given her own Twitter account and a YouTube channel for her and her "sister" Love-chan. Her birthday is 14 June, the day she installed her new voice pack. On 14 June 2020, Aipii was given her own 2D avatar and she is no longer called Kizuna AI.

Ai-Ge (哥)
Kizuna AI (Simplified Chinese: 绊爱, Traditional Chinese: 絆愛, Pinyin: Bàn ài) is the third and final Kizuna AI to "update" herself with a new personality pack. Unlike her "sisters", she is a version of Kizuna Ai for the audience of the People's Republic of China and she wears a customized version of her attires reflecting those changes (along with speaking exclusively in Mandarin). She uploads her videos on the Chinese platform Bilibili with a mirror on YouTube. She was the Kizuna AI who took more time in appear and she debuted on Ai-chan's 3rd Birthday party livestream.

Like the other Kizuna AI she was given a nickname by her audience and she is now known as Ai-Ge (Simplified Chinese: 爱哥, Traditional Chinese: 愛哥, Pinyin: Ài gē Katakana: アイガー aigē) which roughly translates as "Ai-bro".

#kzn
#kzn, pronounced "Kizuna" (キズナ), is a CeVIO AI that is patterned after Kizuna Ai that was revealed in a series of cryptic tweets during the lead-up to the Hello World 2022 concert on 26 February, 2022. During the concert, Kizuna was unveiled as part of the performance. The AI officially went on sale on 8 August, 2022.

On 26 February 2023, #kzn would host their first live concert, called "Play with Me".

Alleles Project
Alleles Project is an XR VTuber group that is a spin-off from the anime "Kizuna no Allele", in which various content creators portray their own characters from the anime.

Trivia
Further information: Kizuna AI
 * The revelation of the Four Kizuna AI is, to this very day, one of the most controversial moments in the history of A.I. Channel. This announcement was ill taken by several of the fans in Japan, the PRC and overseas to the point it sparked rumors of a possible demise of the original voice actress of Kizuna AI, (the at the time unconfirmed Kasuga Nozomi). Fearing a similar situation like what happened with the Game Club Project and Unlimited, fans reacted with a backlash against the companies that at the time were in charge of Kizuna AI's content, Activ8 and upd8. This led to a series of decisions to appease the disgruntled fans and a series of rushed official statements to dispel the rumors.
 * One of the most unfortunate and infamous videos with this new tenure was a video of Love-chan and Aipii (at the time both referred as Ai-chan) playing Super Bunny Man. One of the Ai's a penalty has to do an ahegao face. The video accumulated more than 11,000 dislikes and it is one of the most despised videos in all the A.I. Channel's catalog
 * After pressure from fans to give two of the other Kizuna AI (as the Chinese Kizuna AI was given already a new channel and new attires) a more definite personality, on 17 December 2019, they were given nicknames chosen by the fans and a distinctive hairpin. They were called Love-chan (#) and Aipii (*), Chinese Ai-chan also requested the same from her fans and she was nicknamed "Ai-bro".
 * With the creation of her own company and the departure from Activ8/upd8, new decisions about Love-chan and Aipii were taken, like the creation of her independent Twitter accounts and a new YouTube channel.