Artificial Empathy Using Robotics

 

Image of Pepper. Photo Credit: Alex Knight, Pexels

 

By Lilian H. Hill

One example of artificial empathy is Japan's use of robots for elder care. The aging population and a declining birth rate have led to a growing demand for elder care. The national government has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in funding research and development for such care devices using artificial intelligence to display simulations of empathy (Wright, 2023). They are designed to assist in caregiving tasks, provide companionship, and improve the quality of life for the elderly. In addition to robots used for assistive care and safety monitoring, examples of robots endowed with artificial empathy include:

·      Paro: A therapeutic robot designed to look like a baby seal, Paro responds to touch and sound, providing comfort and emotional support to the elderly, particularly those with dementia. The robot is programmed to cry for attention and respond to its name. It includes an off switch.

·      Pepper: Created by Aldebaran Robotics and acquired by SoftBank Robotics in 2015, Pepper is a humanoid robot that can recognize human emotions and engage in basic conversations. It is used in elder care facilities to provide companionship, entertainment, and even lead group activities. Pepper is also used in retail settings for customer service. It talks, gesticulates, and seems determined to make everyone smile.

·      Nao: Originally created by Aldebaran Robotics, acquired by SoftBank Robotics in 2015. Nao is a small humanoid robot designed to interact with people. It is packed with sensors. It can walk, dance, speak, and recognize faces and objects. Now in its sixth generation, it is used in research, education, and healthcare all over the world.

These examples are only a small selection of humanoid robots. For more information, refer to ROBOTS: Your Guide to the World of Robotics (robotsguide.com)

It may strike you as strange, or possibly even creepy, to interact with a robot in intimate ways; however, robots are rapidly being integrated into daily life. The idea of robots was once limited to the world of science fiction, where they were depicted as humanoid machines carrying out tasks with human-like precision and intelligence. Think of R2-D2 and C-3P0 of Stars Fame or Rosey the Robot from the Jetson’s TV Shows. You could also picture Terminator as a more frightening version of movie robotics. Although humanoid robots are still a focus of research and development, robots today come in many different shapes and serve a wide range of functions in our daily lives. Robotics are used in automated vacuum cleaners, Smart home devices, home security systems, and personal assistants like Alexa and Siri (Galiniostech, 2023).

Artificial empathy aims to make interactions with AI systems feel more human-like, fostering trust and comfort in users. However, it also raises ethical considerations about the authenticity of machine-generated empathy and the potential for manipulation.

Wright (2023) notes that there needs to be more connection between promoting robotic care assistants and their actual use. His research in Japan indicates that robotic devices require setup, maintenance, and time to manage and store, reducing caregivers' time with residents. He comments that “existing social and communication-oriented tasks tended to be displaced by new tasks that involved more interaction with the robots than with the residents. Instead of saving time for staff to do more of the human labor of social and emotional care, the robots actually reduced the scope for such work” (para. 13). He concludes by saying the robotic devices may be an expensive distraction from the difficult choices we face regarding how we value people and allocate resources in our societies, leading policymakers to postpone tough decisions in the hope that future technologies will "rescue" society from the challenges of an aging population.

 

References

Galiniostech (2023, November 6). Robots in everyday life: A glimpse into the future. Medium. https://medium.com/@galiniostech/robots-in-everyday-life-a-glimpse-into-the-future-c966640a783d

Wright, J. (2023, January 9). Inside Japan’s long experiment in automating elder care: The country wanted robots to help care for the elderly. What happened? MIT Technology Review. https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/01/09/1065135/japan-automating-eldercare-robots/