Kizuna AI is a Japanese VTuber. As of 2020, she is the largest VTuber, with more than 4 million subscribers across three YouTube channels and an additional 1 million subscribers on Chinese video platform Bilibili. Kizuna AI posted her first YouTube video on her "A.I.Channel" on November 29, 2016. A second channel, "A.I.Games", was opened in March 2017 for gaming content, and a third, "A.I.Channel China", opened in June 2019 for a Chinese audience.
Kizuna claims to be the world's first virtual YouTuber,though the first channel to use a CG avatar for vlogging purposes on YouTube was the channel of English-Japanese Ami Yamato, who debuted her first video in 2011. Kizuna's video content is similar to many other YouTubers, consisting primarily of discussions, Q&A videos, and more traditional "Let's Play" videos. Because Kizuna primarily communicates in Japanese, fans contribute translations for her videos, and there are entire unofficial communities built around these translators, filling the void of an official English community. Kizuna has performed at various anime conventions, and has also worked with many game companies.
Starting in 2016, Kizuna AI was originally managed directly by Activ8, the company that created her, under the name Project A.I. In 2018, the project was moved to in-house agency upd8. Following an announcement on April 24, 2020, Kizuna AI was moved from upd8 to a newly created company dedicated exclusively to her, called Kizuna AI Inc. With the announcement, Japanese voice actress Nozomi Kasuga (春日望) also disclosed her role as the main voice model of Kizuna AI and advisor of the new company. Kizuna AI Inc. formally started activities on 11 May 2020, with Eriko Matsumoto (松本恵利子) as the CEO.
