Over the next few posts, I will be focusing on some technology that might help us as we age, the ideas come from the work done at Tech life.
Some of my tech friends think that Alexa or Amazon Echo might help combat isolation and loneliness. This is an interesting idea and one that was explored by Tech Life a while back. I thought I would share some of their thoughts.
Some of my tech friends think that Alexa or Amazon Echo might help combat isolation and loneliness. This is an interesting idea and one that was explored by Tech Life a while back. I thought I would share some of their thoughts.
When we look at the idea of
using these tools to combat isolation and loneliness there are two separate ideas
about how it could be done.
First, there is the idea,
getting a fair bit of media attention, that interaction between an older adult
and an AI (Alexa) might help reduce isolation.
Second is the idea that Alexa
(an AI) can facilitate deeper human to human interactions (with friends and
family for example) as well.
It's this second idea that
Tech life found intriguing and based on their recent explorations of Alexa and
the Amazon Echo Show, they think this tool has real potential to combat
isolation and loneliness.
Alexa is an artificial
intelligence (AI) developed by Amazon and made available in a family of
hardware products with names like the Amazon Echo, the Amazon Echo Dot and
recently the Amazon Echo Show.
To understand how older
adults would interact Tech Life had older adults interact with the tools. Most
of these adults said that having artificial intelligence to interact with was
certainly cool, and found it very useful. The question that Tech life wanted to
explore was if Alexa could also improve the depth and quantity of our
interactions with our fellow humans to reduce isolation and loneliness.
Social Isolation and
Loneliness are complex conditions, with a variety of contributing causes which
vary greatly from person to person.
But there are several ways in
which you can imagine Alexa can make a difference.
· Interactions directly with an AI (Alexa herself);
· Interactions with other humans — made easier or better
or more frequent by Alexa.
And as far as interacting
with humans is concerned, there are two subcategories that Tech Life explored:
· Deeper interactions with friends and family who live
far away; and
· Making new friends; or finding acquaintances with the
right interests or personalities.
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