In Japan, a cat has been appointed as a railway VP [1], and a cartoon robot cat has been appointed as a cultural ambassador [2]. Their management culture simply isn't very anthropocentric.

[1] http://www.economist.com/news/obituary/21656623-tama-station...

[2] http://www.nbcnews.com/id/23716592/ns/world_news-asia_pacifi...

There really seems to be nothing Japan won't anthropomorphize to make a quick buck[0][1].

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuru-chara

[1]http://en.rocketnews24.com/2016/01/19/toyota-goes-full-otaku...

We live in a pretty wacky future. [τ]

[τ] http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/dominos-app-featuring-hatsune-...

An advertising company in Japan has "appointed" a robot (that they developed? really?) as their creative director. What it actually does: search advertisement databases to give suggestions. Calling it an "employee" is a publicity stunt.

Yeah, it sounds like this is just a tool they're really getting a lot of use out of, so they have a giant "in-joke" that it's actually an employee.

I'd like to see them pay income taxes for this 'employee' and do all the other paperwork needed.

That employee would need a corresponding Social Security Tax Number System (SSTNS) number, and only those with resident registration are eligible.

I'm not sure the government wants to collect taxes on an individual that doesn't use any social services. It would be very strange.

Seriously this is just a major PR piece of an article. I work with McCann in Japan and their ways of working are far from modern.

Whats funny is that on "Mad Men", McCann was one plot line generator as was the big hulking IBM machine at about the same time. If I understood everything, the IBM machine was part of why McCann was interested in SCDP.

TL;DR: In Japan, an advertising agency makes up they have an AI to appear in news.

They are advertising their services by showing how good they are.