Eli Saslow

Thanks so much.

I've spent a lot of time traveling around the country over the last years and spending time with people as the healthcare systems around them sort of collapsed and people's lives in the United States have gotten lonelier.

We have the data to back this up in almost every way.

We're more siloed in our own existence than we ever were before.

We're less likely to spend time with other people.

Our families are more likely to live far from us.

And

People who feel lonely are more likely to suffer from dementia.

They're more likely to have heart attacks.

They're more likely to die younger than people who are living in close proximity to people who really care about them.

So I became really interested in sort of how artificial intelligence is trying to solve this problem that we're facing in the United States today.

The loneliness crisis.

The loneliness crisis, exactly.

Can artificial intelligence make people feel less lonely as they age?

And if in fact, a person can begin to feel seen in some way by this artificial intelligence technology.

And then I learned that this kind of technology actually already exists.

It's called LAQ.

It's this small robot, an AI robot that's already in about a thousand homes around the United States, mostly designed for seniors.

And so I started talking to several of them, people who were in these pilot programs where elder care associations, state health associations have bought them this technology to see if it will improve their lives.

And in one of those phone calls, I talked to this woman named Jan Worrell.