Robots can be friends too

As humans, we have relationships with many people and now we are also enjoying relationships with robots such as Alexa. Alexa is a virtual assistant AI (artificial intelligence) technology developed by Amazon, first used in the Amazon Echo smart speakers developed by Amazon Lab126 in California in 2014.

Our emotional involvement with robots is becoming ever closer as the developed world is ushering in a new order for us, and robots are slowly and gradually taking on traditional human behaviours.

The Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, based in Germany, has built robots that give “softwarm hugs” to people. The people involved reported feeling trust and affection from the robots, with some even saying they felt “understood” by them.

It was not that people fell in love with robots, rather they formed a sort of social connection that is now missing from a lot of conventional relationships.

In Japan, for example, older people are engaging in social interactions with a small robot called Paro, and it has been showing good results.

Paro is an advanced interactive robot developed by a leading Japanese industrial automation pioneer, AIST. It allows the documented benefits of animal therapy to be administered to patients in environments such as hospitals and extended care facilities where live animals present treatment or logistical difficulties.

Patients using Paro are found to have increased motor and emotional stimulations. Tests have also shown that seniors improved their relationships with other humans and reduced their stress levels.

Most cultures have objects that are worshipped, such as items in our houses or gardens. Having spent some time in Indonesia, I learnt that there are spirits to which local people refer, and there are offerings to gods, that include food, flowers, etc. Images of these gods are also created.

We have always had relationships with things that aren’t human, so interacting with robots is nothing new. Robots, our new friends, might just be an aid to help us keep our empathic skills honed so we can use them in times of need.

People are forming a sort of social connection that is missing from a lot of conventional relationships.