By: Jasmine Jiang

Audrey and Ken Mattlin have seven robots in their house. These robots can talk to them and keep them company. However, what is the true impact of these robots?

In 2023, one in three adults aged 50-80 (34%) reported feeling isolated (National Poll on Healthy Aging, 2023). With a robot, elderly people can feel less isolated and instead, more loved and sociable. Many people in the USA are starting to use robots as a way to cure loneliness and can sometimes be seen as family.

These robots can do many things that can help an elderly person in many different ways, such as providing healthcare and emotional support. They can wake them up in the morning or turn off the lights for sleeping. Robots can also act like humans and interact like them and play games: “A growing body of research on companion robots suggests they can reduce stress and loneliness and can help older people remain healthy and active in their homes,” Duke

Today reported this month after a study conducted in part by Murali Doraiswamy, a Duke University professor of psychiatry and geriatrics.

Audrey sometimes uses her robot ElliQ for games

“Let’s play trivia,” she says.

“Sounds good,” said ElliQ, who sounds like a human, “It’s trivia time. Six questions coming right up.”

It asked, among other things, how many colors there are in a rainbow, which actress married Michael Douglas in 2000, and which satellite launched into space on Oct. 4, 1957.

“That’s the year I was married, geez,” said Audrey, who correctly answered “Sputnik” and got four out of six correct.