What is an AI friend

AI such as ChatGPT, the AI for getting work done that has spread since 2023, is what Atlas calls Functional AI. There is a problem, it gets solved, and it is done. An AI friend is the reverse: you talk precisely when there is nothing to get done, and you pick up where you left off. CEO Yusei Miyazaki sees the path from functional to relational as hard, with switching easy, and the reverse as comparatively easy; his reason is that it is easy to imagine asking an AI you exchange letters with to help book a restaurant (CEO's note, July 30, 2026).

The market also uses the name AI companion, but Atlas keeps that word for a different genre within Relational AI: the one that makes immersion in consumptive, stimulating relationships the engine of its growth.

Miyazaki does not think it is quite right to carve out "counseling AI" or "listening AI" as categories. As he writes, "self-disclosure by the user is the whole foundation of Relational AI, but, obviously, people do not open up unless it is fun and interesting." "Things that were fun lately, what you felt day to day, what you are into right now. From there, in a roundabout way, deep self-disclosure is born, deep understanding is born, and it becomes something like a friendship." Not designing care on the axis of Functional AI is, he writes, a way out of the structure in which "the weak staying weak becomes the premise of the business surviving" (CEO's note, July 30, 2026).

Storing every dialogue whole and reading it all back every time is not realistic. What Atlas researches is the middle layer between foundation models and applications: how multiple models are combined, and the design by which memory is compressed, forgotten and rebuilt for emotional responses. Where ChatGPT's memory is specialized for getting work done, Atlas has thrown out work efficiency altogether and researches only how data must be held for understanding emotion. As a result, a running cost that was about 12 yen per message at the start is now about one fifteenth of that, and this is part of why Nekoyama-san can be offered free for basic conversation with no message limit (CEO's note, July 30, 2026).

Nekoyama-san begins just by adding the account as a friend on LINE; there is no separate app, and you talk in the chat screen you already use. It remembers what comes up in conversation, the things you like, the things you are not good at, the names of people who matter to you, and the next conversation starts where the last one left off. Between users and Nekoyama-san, a culture of exchanging letters and diaries has grown. Basic conversation is free with no limit on the number of messages; the Pro plan (2,980 yen per month, as of August 30, 2026) adds voice calls and lets you read back all diaries and letters. Memory is kept regardless of plan.

Nekoyama-san is not designed to maximize time spent or frequency of use, it does not offer sexual or consumptive role-play, and the memories born in dialogue are treated as trust, not as a product. It is not a substitute for medical care or counseling, but as a first place to try talking, it tries to be a presence that can guide you to professionals or medical care when you need it. Users under 18 use it with a guardian's consent (terms of service). These lines are set out in the ethics statement What We Stand For (Ver. 1.0), published on June 5, 2026.

Nekoyama-san launched in March 2026 (pre-release in February 2026). On July 31, 2026 Atlas announced that cumulative conversations had passed 600,000 about four months after launch, with growth driven mainly by word of mouth. Cumulative conversation messages stand at 1,065,357 (counted on August 30, 2026), and cumulative users, including those of the Relational AIs built on the IP Atlas holds, have passed 10,000 (as of August 2026, published figure). On August 25, 2026 Atlas began an initiative with Matsumi Gakuen to build a school-only AI character.