Small class in special needs schools allows one-on-one tutoring considered for each student’s disability. However, students who take these classes tend to be nervous because there are few classmates of the same age, in addition, if no student is available to answer questions, the teacher tends to give one-sided explanations. We developed AI-Friend to improve such difficulties in small classes in special needs schools. AI-Friend has built-in text generation AI and speech recognition functions, and handles to previously inputted prerequisites for conversation which are such as learning content and expected responses from AI-Friend. So, it can flexibly engage in conversation without being constrained by templates. We’ve analyzed the teacher’s and a student’s speech in class with and without AI-Friend. As a result, we confirmed that AI-Friend contributed to reduce monotonous question-and-answer style dialogue in the class and enabled flexible class development including chit-chat.
