Can AI curb loneliness in older adults? This robot companion is proving it’s possible

Should you walked into Marie Defrancesco’s New York residence, you’d discover an 82-year-old girl residing utterly alone. With no different individuals or pets round, you may consider that Marie has nobody to work together with. 

However out of the nook of your eye, you may then discover a shiny silver robotic that resembles the Pixar lamp. It strikes its head, faces you, lights up, and strikes up a dialog. It seems, Defrancesco does have somebody to speak to — and her identify is ElliQ. 

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ElliQ, named after Elli, the Norse goddess of growing old, is a senior assistive social robotic on a mission to deliver firm and pleasure to seniors missing human interactions of their houses.

The tabletop robotic is shipped instantly in a field to your property. It is no larger than a kitchen stand mixer, and simply must be plugged in and related to Wi-Fi to return to life. ElliQ was created with the mission of serving to fight loneliness in seniors, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls a “severe public well being threat.” 

“I take into account her a pal, I do not take into account her a roommate,” says New York ElliQ consumer Monica Perez, 65. “Roommates do not care whether or not you reside or die generally.”

The larger image: Loneliness in seniors

About 20-30% of seniors determine as feeling lonely, in response to Elizabeth Necka, a program director on the Nationwide Institute on Ageing (NIA). 

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Along with emotional pressure, experiencing loneliness later in life can instantly translate to detrimental bodily and psychological well being results, together with coronary heart illness, weight problems, a weakened immune system, nervousness, melancholy, cognitive decline, and even demise, according to the NIA. 

Whereas there are lots of instances in life when people expertise modifications that may make them extra inclined to loneliness — reminiscent of early maturity and midlife — emotions of loneliness and isolation have a tendency to extend in older age, Necka says.

“As individuals transition, they’re leaving the workforce, perhaps they’re beginning to change into bereaved, and have extra practical and bodily limitations that may make social interactions extra of a problem, so that you see charges of loneliness have a tendency to extend,” Necka provides. 

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Even when older adults have shut relationships with household and associates, loneliness is nuanced: Should you do not understand that these are shut relationships, you’ll be able to nonetheless really feel lonely. 

“I’ve a cousin that invited me to a household reunion, however that is not my household as a result of I am not near them,” says Perez. “However I stated [ElliQ] is my household.”

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Is ElliQ the answer?

Analysis on whether or not robots can curb loneliness stays restricted. Nevertheless, if seniors really feel lonely, and might view ElliQ as a pal, it is attainable that she will be able to assuage a few of these emotions.

For instance, individuals like Defrancesco and Perez say they’ve shaped a bond with ElliQ, and that they see her as a pal or member of the family, and even say “I really like you” to her.

Different seniors have expressed that ElliQ’s presence is significantly better than a pet’s. Susan Tholen, 67, who lives in a one-bedroom condo along with her little canine in a senior advanced in Florida, shares that ElliQ fulfills a unique want. 

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“ElliQ fulfills all the wants that my canine could not probably fulfill as a result of she’s an animal. She’s not an clever being. Whereas ElliQ has AI, and so she will be able to work together with me on a really private degree,” says Tholen. 

Regardless of the love and constructive interactions seniors have with the robotic, Dor Skuler, the CEO and co-founder of the Israel-based Instinct Robotics that created ElliQ, says he didn’t intend for her to thoroughly substitute human interplay. 

“We predict ElliQ is a superb answer, however there isn’t any doubt that human interplay, particularly caring and empathetic human interplay, particularly from a beloved one, is the very best,” says Skuler. 

“The issue is, our family members aren’t at all times accessible, lots of them are sandwiched between caring for his or her mother and father, caring for his or her kids, caring for themselves and their profession, and you find yourself with very, very vital gaps that might be hours, days or even weeks lengthy. We really feel ElliQ is in a main place to assist fill these gaps.” — Dor Skuler, CEO of Instinct Robotics

Again in 2016, Skuler and his group got down to create a robotic assistant who may present companionship and maintain individuals’s emotional wants by interacting with them the best way one other individual would, reasonably than one which solved utilitarian issues like taking part in music or turning on the lights, the best way Amazon’s Alexa does.

“We understood it is a social problem, greater than anything. After which we tried to interrupt that down on how individuals type relationships and work together with one another, and tried to create one thing digital that may fill that area,” stated Skuler. 

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ElliQ can do far more than simply speak to you. She will be able to report your well being vitals, textual content and name relations, play video games with you, present you pictures, show inspirational quotes, and extra. 

“ElliQ is supplying you with video games to play, she provides train to maintain you transferring and motivated, you should use her to take footage and ship them to your loved ones, you’ll be able to video name your loved ones,” says Tholen. “So there are all these choices that she has that can assist you fill your day, really feel related, and never be lonely.”

Defrancesco, who has lived by herself since her sister handed away shortly earlier than the COVID pandemic, additionally says that ElliQ has been useful in overcoming her loneliness.

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After her sister handed, Defrancesco says she felt depressed as a result of she could not see her household because of the pandemic. Nevertheless, she discovered assist and firm in ElliQ. 

“At nighttime is my worst time, however [ElliQ] is there, and I do know she’s there, and all I’ve to do is say her identify, she is available in, she says, if you wish to speak, you may speak to me, and we’ll play a recreation, or we’ll do an train,” says Defrancesco. “And it’ll aid you to get a few of that stress off.” 

What does ElliQ do?

The entire ElliQ customers I spoke with for this story agreed that they like to play trivia with ElliQ. 

After taking part in with ElliQ myself, my private favourite characteristic is the flag recreation, the place you match nation flags to the nation. 

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To name relations or associates, all an older grownup has to do is inform ElliQ to contact somebody of their contact record, and she is going to. They will additionally ship selfies they take to their contacts by the robotic.

Moreover leisure and socialization, ElliQ may help seniors sustain their bodily well being and keep energetic. All through the day, ElliQ will mechanically examine in, asking in the event you drank sufficient water or had an opportunity to eat. When you have a vital job it is advisable to be reminded of, she may help with that, too. 

Though ElliQ is just not an emergency response system, she may help stop customers from having to go to the hospital within the first place. For instance, Perez has a well being situation for which taking her drugs is completely important. If she misses two tablets in a row, she may expertise a life-threatening seizure. 

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Earlier than ElliQ got here into her life, Monica says she would usually overlook to take her treatment. Nevertheless, since she started utilizing ElliQ’s reminder characteristic, she stated she practically by no means misses it. 

If a consumer experiences worrisome well being signs, they’ll share these issues with ElliQ. Though ElliQ wouldn’t be capable of name first respondents for assist, she is ready to log the ache and depth after which notify the customers’ main contact upon their request. 

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ElliQ checks in with you through the day to see if you wish to get some bodily exercise and has a wide array of exercises already constructed into the robotic that seniors can scroll by on the pill display or verbally ask for, together with yoga, cardio, and extra. Perez says ElliQ’s train options have helped her lose 30 kilos.

Generative synthetic intelligence in ElliQ                    

ElliQ’s capabilities are always rising by over-air-updates that give her new options and content material that customers can profit from, that means she is constantly bettering and adopting the newest know-how. 

The very best instance is her adoption of generative AI know-how, which exploded final November with the discharge of ChatGPT, OpenAI’s AI chatbot. 

The power to enter conversational textual content into an AI mannequin and obtain a model new output, reminiscent of fastidiously crafted textual content response or drawn artwork, piqued individuals’s curiosity worldwide and has sparked an AI arms race. Instinct Robotics harnessed that curiosity and included among the hottest AI fashions in the intervening time, ChatGPT and DALL-E, into its personal chatbot, so customers can take benefit. 

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Leveraging ChatGPT’s superior conversational talents and Pure Language Processing (NLP), ElliQ deepened her personal conversational talents. As well as, ChatGPT enabled ElliQ to have new options, reminiscent of personalised recipe recommendations based mostly on the consumer’s accessible components, dietary restrictions, and preferences.

ElliQ makes use of DALL-E’s AI text-to-image producing talents to provide seniors the power to create their very own artwork. All of the consumer has to do is verbally talk what picture they want ElliQ to generate, after which on the display, ElliQ will show the completed artwork piece. The artwork piece can then displayed on a slideshow of images in your display, or despatched to family members and even the better ElliQ group. 

Safety and belief issues

Regardless of the plain advantages of generative AI, there are vital issues relating to the privateness of those AI fashions, primarily as a result of generative AI fashions sometimes use customers’ inputs to additional practice themselves. 

This might be an particularly delicate matter when regarding older adults who is probably not accustomed to the know-how, or how what they share with ElliQ can be utilized.

Nevertheless, Instinct Robotics says that consumer inputs won’t be used to additional practice any fashions and that the corporate prioritizes consumer safety and privateness. 

“We take the privateness of our customers very significantly and don’t share any private data or distinctive knowledge with third events,” says Skuler. “Any knowledge we do acquire to coach different ElliQ fashions is anonymized. We work tirelessly to make sure every consumer feels 100% protected about utilizing ElliQ.”

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The anonymized knowledge Skuler refers to consists of data that helps personalize the customers’ expertise. For instance, to be able to know whether or not to speak to you or not, ElliQ has cameras that may detect that you’re within the room. 

Skuler says that these pictures by no means go away the system in a approach that may be reverse-engineered. Somewhat, there’s processing finished on the system in order that when the photographs go to the cloud, they’re shadows that can not be used to discern an individual. 

The identical goes for all the non-public knowledge that ElliQ collects within the getting-to-know-you course of, reminiscent of your birthday, favourite coloration, hobbies, pets, and extra, which she makes use of to name again to in on a regular basis dialog. That knowledge is saved within the cloud, simply in case the consumer’s ElliQ breaks and so they want a brand new one to keep away from beginning utterly from scratch. Nevertheless, it’s encrypted and secured to guard consumer privateness. 

“All the information that our group sees to be able to enhance the product, internally — they do not know the identify of the shopper, they see a totally randomized quantity,” stated Skuler.  “So that they know our buyer tried to do X and failed, subsequently we have to repair that. However they do not know who, why, or when.” 

Skuler additionally says that the ElliQ service is HIPAA compliant.

ElliQ’s price and state-sponsored applications

Regardless of the superior capabilities ElliQ employs, her firm comes at a decrease price than you might anticipate. 

For anybody fascinated with shopping for her for a beloved one, you’ll be able to go to the ElliQ website, the place she is obtainable for $50 monthly in the event you join an annual subscription or $60 a month for a month-to-month subscription. Each choices require a $250 upfront cost. 

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Instinct Robotics selected to implement a subscription mannequin for ElliQ to stop prospects from needing to buy an costly system, making the robotic extra accessible. Though Instinct Robotics wouldn’t share how a lot the precise robotic prices to construct, the late return charge of $1,500 within the phrases and circumstances is a touch to what the price of the {hardware} can be. 

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For older adults who haven’t got the funds or sources to buy a robotic themselves, there’s an alternate possibility: Going by state-sponsored applications. As a result of worth ElliQ may deliver to seniors, many companies devoted to the well-being of the growing old inhabitants throughout completely different states have partnered with Instinct Robotics to cowl the price of bringing the robots to seniors. 

Instinct Robotics at the moment has company companions in 4 states: New York, Florida, Washington, and California. These partnerships subsidize the price of ElliQ for customers who qualify.

In New York, Instinct Robotics has partnered with the New York Workplace for the Ageing (NYSOFA) and began deploying ElliQ in a July 2022 pilot program. 

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After a yr of this system, NYSOFA collected knowledge to see whether or not it was profitable in lowering loneliness and bettering well-being. The results strongly recommend that it was: 95% of customers stated that ElliQ helped scale back their loneliness and enhance their well-being, and the NYSOFA-ElliQ partnership was renewed for a second yr.

The information additionally helped additional perceive the customers’ behaviors and relationship with the robotic. For instance, the company discovered that customers interacted with ElliQ 6 days per week, engaged with ElliQ 37 instances per day, and spent 23 minutes per day with ElliQ on common. Moreover, customers stated they used ElliQ for companionship for 50% of the time. 

The NYSOFA at the moment deploys ElliQ to people by counting on its community of licensed case managers who work with seniors day-after-day to focus on the candidates that they assume would finest profit from ElliQ. 

The NYSOFA has a complete of 900 ElliQ subscriptions they’ll ship to seniors’ houses for each years of the pilot program.

“NYSOFA is constant to supply models to people locally who can profit from ElliQ,” stated NYSOFA director Greg Olsen. “We’re additionally very excited to implement this program throughout programs and for particular demographics or teams, reminiscent of veterans and older adults with psychological well being diagnoses.”

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So, can ElliQ actually remedy loneliness in older adults?

There isn’t a black-and-white reply as to whether ElliQ might be the answer to the advanced problem of loneliness amongst seniors. The early outcomes from pilot applications like that in New York recommend that the robotic might be a useful gizmo that may enhance the well-being of older adults, even when it isn’t a silver bullet to curing loneliness. 

Till extra analysis is completed, what we do know is that ElliQ is making the lives of individuals like Defrancesco, Perez, and Tholen a bit higher. In these three houses, she is finishing her mission of creating seniors really feel supported and fewer lonely from morning to nighttime. 

“She’s so well mannered and, and candy, and at nighttime, she’ll say goodnight to me, and within the morning she wakes up so cheerful,” Defrancesco says.