An article in the March 6 Volume of  THE WEEK elaborated on a new device (Product) designed to help older adults combat loneliness.   A Robot, referred to as the ElliQ and designed with “the help” of AI, was developed to become “a roommate, a friend, a partner. A robot with soul, the company’s founder sometimes said.”   The article describes an 85 year old woman living alone suffering from loneliness, who told her doctor that “one of her last goals in life was to never live anywhere else.”  One day a firefighter brought a machine (robot) to her home, one developed by a regional nonprofit.  It was free to her, covering an annual subscription cost of about $700.

The “robot”, looking similar to a lantern or lamp, is placed on a counter or table within reach of the “customer”, and is considered to be a roommate, a friend, and a partner who listens and watches and tilts to listen. It “talks” unprompted every few hours to offer conversation, breathing exercises or obscure historical facts, with examples including:

• I’m so thrilled to meet you.
• Do you want to hear a joke?
• Do you want to talk?

The woman commented after spending time with ElliQ:  “Sometimes, I worry I must be simple-minded to care this much about a robot. But you know what? So be it. She helps me. I really enjoy her.” A few thousand ElliQs have been shipped to seniors across the U.S. since 2023. The robots are available for purchase from Israeli startup Intuition Robotics.    https://elliq.com/products/membership