Can A.I. Make People Feel Less Lonely?

Brought to you by Apple Card. Hey, you could be earning 2% daily cash back on that purchase, and that one, and even that one. That's because Apple Card users earn 2% daily cash back on every purchase, including everyday items they buy online or in store when using their Apple Card with Apple Pay. Not an Apple Card customer? You can apply in the Wallet app on iPhone. Subject to credit approval, Apple Card issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA, Salt Lake City branch. Terms and more at apple.co/benefits. From The New York Times, I'm Rachel Abrams, and this is The Daily. For years, caretakers and health officials have warned about the dangers of loneliness and social isolation, especially for older Americans who increasingly find themselves alone. Today, my colleague Eli Saslow has the story of one woman who's using technology, artificial intelligence, to keep her independence and to keep her company. It's Thursday, May 28. Elyse Aslow, welcome to The Daily. Thanks so much. Happy to be with you. You are a journalist who is known for spending a lot of time with individual people who have these really gripping and evocative stories that don't just tell us about their lives, but actually tell us something much bigger about the time that we live in. And that is absolutely what you did with a recent story you wrote about how, in one instance, artificial intelligence is being used to treat loneliness. And what it captured was not just this unique moment that we're in where technology is playing an increasingly large role in our lives, but, also, it captured how people are grappling with what that role should be. So just to start off, why don't you tell us what you set out to do with this story, and what you were interested in? Yeah. I 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. You know, 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. 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 …