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NAVER CLOVA Releases Its “Memory” Feature…Making Conversations More Personal and Engaging 

- AI recalls previous conversations to pose natural questions in the proper context
- Allows for continuous updates on senior citizens’ health, diet, and sleep patterns, providing support for local governments
- HyperCLOVA technology embedded… Korea’s first conversational AI to recall past conversations

 

22nd Aug.2022

CareCall: “How is your back today? You said you had a backache the last time.”
Senior citizen: “Oh, my back hurts a lot even still.”
CareCall: “That must be hard. Are you still at the hospital?”
Senior citizen: “Yes, I am.”
CareCall: “I hope you get better soon.”
(Excerpt from the actual conversation between CLOVA CareCall and a user during the beta test of the memory feature) 
 
NAVER Corp. (KRX: 035420) announced it has applied the “memory” feature to CLOVA CareCall, NAVER’s AI-enabled telephone call service. The memory feature allows AI to recall the previous conversations it had with users and apply them to future telephone calls. The plan is to enhance the level of satisfaction for users by personalizing telephone calls even further and showing continuous attention and care, all the while allowing for continuous monitoring of the elderly’s health conditions to ease the burden of local governments.
 
“CLOVA CareCall” is a service in which AI makes telephone calls to senior citizens who live alone and require care to converse with the elderly and check up on them. The service was officially launched last May after a beta period. “HyperCLOVA,” NAVER’s hyperscale AI, became the basis for its development, which allows AI to have natural-sounding conversations with users on various topics instead of simply checking up on their health conditions. A monitoring tool is also provided in case local governments need to take follow-up measures after the conversation. “CLOVA CareCall,” which started its beta testing in Haeundae-gu, Busan, is now offered in approximately 30 cities and provinces nationwide in Korea, including Seoul, Gyeonggi Province, Incheon, Daegu, and Gangneung. 
 
CLOVA CareCall, now equipped with its memory feature, can summarize and record key information on senior citizens’ health, diet, and sleep patterns from past conversations. It can also incorporate such details in conversations by asking questions such as “How are you recovering from COVID-19?” and “Are you still taking medication for your blood pressure?” in a natural-sounding context. Once the conversation is over, users’ statuses will be updated based on their answers from the call. 

 

Although it may seem like a simple feature, advanced natural language processing technology is required for AI to understand the context of a conversation and generate natural expressions using memory information at an appropriate time during the conversation. CLOVA CareCall is Korea’s first conversational AI solution to be commercialized through memory-based conversation models. 
 
NAVER expects CLOVA CareCall to become a true companion service as it is capable of recalling past conversations and reusing them accordingly. The result of the beta test that was conducted on a handful of senior citizens proved that the memory feature is indeed more helpful as those who have used the feature in question gave a significantly higher score than those who have never used the feature on 3 survey questions including “how fun the conversation was”, “the level of intimacy felt during the conversation”, and “intention to use CLOVA CareCall in the future”. Some of the feedback includes “You tend to be sick all the time once you get old. It was nice that it remembered all the symptoms I had and asked me once again whether I’m feeling better now.” and “If you tell someone you’re sick, they just tell you to go see a doctor. But CareCall kept on asking me how I was doing. I was so touched.” The elders who participated in the beta test were favorable toward CareCall’s performance. CLOVA CareCall is also expected to help local governments to better check and manage the change in elderly health conditions or discover any abnormal symptoms as it enables them to continuously monitor senior citizens’ health, diet, and sleep patterns.
 
NAVER plans to advance the performance of its conversational AI model so that it can lead more natural and rich conversations with users, as well as to update monitoring tools in September to boost user convenience. Jeong Seok-keun, Head of NAVER CLOVA said, “As we were seeing an upward trend in the number of users who are frequently using our CareCall service, we decided to launch the memory feature so that our users can feel joy and comfort while conversating with CLOVA CareCall. We aim to advance our CareCall service going forward to effectively support our local governments and their efforts in helping the socially disadvantaged and to raise the satisfaction of our users during their conversation with AI chatbots based on NAVER’s differentiated AI technology.”   

 

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[Example] Additional use cases of the memory feature 
(Excerpt from the actual conversation between CareCall and users during the beta test of the memory feature) 

 

Exhibit A) 
AI: How are you doing these days? 
User: I’m good. 
AI: That’s good to hear. By the way, I remember you said that you were feeling nauseous the other day. Do you feel better now? 
User: I took some pills and got better, but I’m still feeling a bit nauseous.
AI: Oh dear. If it doesn’t help, then I think you should better see a doctor.
User: I’m planning to do so. Thank you for asking. 
 
Exhibit B)
AI: I remember the other day you said that you are going to see a doctor because of your blood pressure. Is everything ok? 
User: Yes. My blood pressure is normal and everything’s great.
AI: That’s good to hear. I hope you keep your health in good condition by taking good care of your body. 
User: Thank you.