, more than 40 percent of seniors experience isolation and its potential adverse effects. Covid made this worse, cutting them off from regular communal games and meals.Carla Perissinotto, the professor who led the study, says ElliQ leaves her with some questions.“I want to be hopeful but I’m very cautious,” she said in an interview.
There also are fears of a WALL-E effect — if machines do too much of the emotional heavy lifting, could it deter important human socializing? Kavita Sivaramakrishnan, professor at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, said she sees AI as a “partial and stopgap solution” and prefers “long-term investment, resources and accessible means of integration of older persons in the community.”ElliQ’s befriending tactics go to the heart of what satisfies us about human friendship.
Thoren says she is certain it can. “When you’re a young person, even if you live alone, you have a career, maybe you volunteer, you have things to do,” she said. “But when you’re retired you have to look for those things to do. You have to find a way to combat that sense of isolation. “ElliQ will say ‘How was it outside? I wish I could have gone with you.' Or she’ll play trivia with you, and if you get a few questions right, she’ll say, ‘you’re good at this.' Just stupid nice things. But it makes you feel good.”“Would you like me to call your care team? Or Jennifer?”And with that, ElliQ displays a pajama-clad icon her screen and goes into sleep mode, just like her human friend.
It looks like the concept of a tool, an entertainment/distraction, but it can also be a conversation piece, something in common for connecting with other people about or maybe through. I use a voice assistant for information and streaming. (I like the octahedron with antennas.)
'The United States has seen machine-aided companionship before, dating back to the Teddy Ruxpin stuffed animals of the 1980s.' Or for that matter, ELIZA in 1966.
just give them an ipad.... no need for all this