Artificial Human Companions

Artificial human companions are any kind of hardware or software creation designed to give companionship to a person.

Examples include digital pets, such as the popular Tamagotchi, or robots, such as the Sony AIBO. Virtual companions can be used as a form of entertainment, or they can be medical or functional, to assist the elderly in maintaining an acceptable standard of life. Various types of large language models (LLMs) are used in the development of AI-based human companions. These can engage in natural and dynamic conversations, provide assistance, offer companionship, and even perform tasks like scheduling or information retrieval.

Introduction

Senior citizens make up an increasing percentage of the population in the Western nations, and, according to Judith Masthoff of the University of Brighton, they tend to live alone and have a limited social network. Studies also show that those elderly living in such circumstances have an increased risk of developing depression and dementia and have a shorter life span than more socially connected seniors.

It has been known to gerontologists for some time that pets -- particularly those such as cats and dogs that exhibit a range of behaviors and emotions -- help prevent depression in the elderly. Studies also show some beneficial results from electronic pets such as Sony's Aibo and Omron's NeCoRo; however, the therapeutic value of such artificial pets remains limited by the capabilities of technology. A recent solution to physical limitations of technology comes from GeriJoy, in the form of virtual pets for seniors. Seniors can interact with GeriJoy's pets by petting them through the multitouch interface of standard consumer-grade tablets, and can even have intelligent conversations with the pets.

Television viewing among the elderly represents a significant percentage of how their waking hours are spent, and the percentage increases directly with age. Seniors typically watch TV to avoid loneliness; yet TV limits social interaction, thus creating a vicious circle.

In 2012 Judith Masthoff, a professor of computer science from the University of Utrech, purports that it is possible to develop an interactive, personalized form of television that would allow the viewer to engage in natural conversation and learn from these conversations, as well as becoming more physically active which can help in the management of Type 2 Diabetes.

Recent research shows the proliferation of this technology, particularly among the younger generation. Another study reveals that young people are increasingly engaging in digital relationships with AI as a form of emotional support. This trend is notably significant for those grappling with social anxiety and depression, as AI provides a unique and accessible resource for managing these challenges.

Such applications have existed for decades. The earliest, such as the "psychologist" program ''ELIZA'', did little more than identify key words and feed them back to the user, but Kenneth Colby's 1972 PARRY program at Stanford University -- far superior to ELIZA -- exhibited many of the features researchers now seek to put into a dialog system, above all some form of emotional response and having something "it wants to say", rather than being completely passive like ELIZA. The Internet now has a wide range of chatbots but they are no more advanced, in terms of plausibility as conversationalists, than the systems of forty years ago and most users tire of them after a couple of exchanges. Meanwhile, two developments have advanced the field in different ways: first, the Loebner Prize, an annual competition for the best computer conversationalist, substantially advanced performance. Its winners could be considered the best chatterbots, but even they never approach a human level of capacity as can be seen from the site.

Secondly, a great deal of industrial and academic research has gone into effective conversationalists, usually for specific tasks, such as selling rail or airline tickets. The core issue in all such systems is the dialog manager which is the element of system that determines what the system should say next and so appear intelligent or compliant with the task at hand. This research, along with work on computing emotion, speech research and Embodied Conversational Agents (ECAs) has led to the beginnings of more companionable systems, particularly for the elderly. The EU supported Companions Project is a 4-year, 15-site project to build such companions, based at the University of Sheffield.

In social work

Artificial intelligence (AI) technology has been applied in multiple fields of social work. In terms of social work for the elderly, AI systems have played an important role in preventing bank fraud, helping to protect the elderly population who may face financial fraud risks.

In terms of the development of artificial intelligence and social robot, De Greeff and Belpaeme wrote in 2015 that the social learning ability of social robots has been improved and may further develop in the coming decades.Research has shown that social robots are typically designed with certain role characteristics to promote anthropomorphism in human interaction and encourage an interactive style that is in line with natural human communication. The appearance and behavior of robots can enhance people's understanding of their social agent attributes when interacting with them, rather than treating them as ordinary devices. This research result indicates that artificial intelligence is being used to enhance the language and social interaction abilities of technology and robots, in order to better support human communication and provide assistive functions.

Adoption

A 2025 study by the Wheatley Institute featuring 3000 people ages 18 to 30 across the United States found that 19% of young adults have chatted with an AI which was meant to simulate a romantic partner, and nearly one in ten have masturbated while talking to an AI companion.https://brightspotcdn.byu.edu/a6/a1/c3036cf14686accdae72a4861dd1/counterfeit-connections-report.pdf

See also

*Chatbot
*Digital life form
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References

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Multimodal interaction