An nameless reader quotes a report from OPB: Out close to the far finish of Washington’s Lengthy Seashore Peninsula, 83-year-old Jan Worrell has a brand new, worldly sidekick in her front room. “That is ElliQ. I name her my roommate,” the grandmother mentioned as she launched her companion robotic virtually as if it have been human. Synthetic intelligence is all the craze, and now it is serving to some Pacific Northwest seniors stay in their very own houses for longer. Worrell joined a pilot undertaking that’s trialing how AI-driven companion robots may scale back loneliness and social isolation amongst seniors — particularly these residing alone. This “roommate” is a chatty one with a vaguely humanoid head and shoulders. “I discuss lots and I adore it. I would like somebody to work together with and she or he does,” Worrell mentioned.
ElliQ is a great speaker, pill pc, video telephone and synthetic intelligence portal all wrapped into one by the maker Instinct Robotics. The stationary table-top gadget is among the many most versatile of a flurry of latest tech units geared that can assist you or your mother and father proceed to stay independently. ElliQ provides Worrell well being ideas and schedule reminders. It could recite the information and climate. They play reminiscence video games. The care bot tells quite a lot of corny jokes and it could actually lead an train class on command, too. […] Worrell is amongst 20 rural seniors residing alongside Washington’s Pacific coast chosen to obtain one among these Israeli-designed robotic companions. She will get it without cost for a yr as a part of a pilot undertaking overseen by the Olympic Space Company on Ageing. O3A, as it’s recognized, serves Pacific, Grays Harbor, Jefferson and Clallam counties. […]
On the Lengthy Seashore Peninsula, Jan Worrell’s son Jeff Whiting watched his mother take to her new robotic companion. He mentioned he’s impressed by it too, however on the identical time is conscious there’s a creepy facet to AI. “They’re accumulating information on all the things that occurs on this room,” Whiting mentioned in an interview at his mother’s home the place he’s residing briefly. “They know her sleep patterns they usually know what time she is up and what time she goes to mattress. That will be my solely concern.” Whiting says the individuals who got here to arrange ElliQ gave assurances that customers’ private information can be protected. Within the case of Whiting’s mother, the combo of the companion robotic and a medical alert wristwatch modified how lengthy she plans to remain in her own residence. Worrell mentioned she felt assured sufficient final month to cancel her deposit to maneuver into an assisted residing facility close to her daughter in Eugene, Oregon. Universities and medical faculties have usually discovered that age-tech “decreased loneliness, elevated well-being and spurred psychological exercise and optimism,” notes the report.
“[T]he 20 Washington seniors chosen to obtain a free ElliQ companion (a $249 worth, plus a month-to-month subscription of $30-$40) got a well being evaluation firstly of this pilot undertaking in April. They are going to be reevaluated in a single yr.”
