A robot programmed to act like a 7-year-old girl is bringing comfort to patients at hospitals and nursing homes, as reported by The Associated Press Friday. “Robin” uses artificial intelligence to provide emotional support for children and adults while also helping to alleviate the impacts of staffing shortages.
“Nurses and medical staff are really overworked, under a lot of pressure, and unfortunately, a lot of times they don’t have capacity to provide engagement and connection to patients,” Karén Khachikyan, CEO of Expper Technologies, which created Robin, told the AP. “Robin helps to alleviate that part from them.”
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A growing presence
Launched around five years ago in the U.S., the emotional support bot with a cartoonish face has now become a common sight at 30 health care centers in California, Massachusetts, New York and Indiana.
With the emergence of AI in everyday life, it has now found a home in health care by helping to perform tasks like taking notes during exams to performing the duties of a nurse.
While praised as the future of medical care by some, others have raised concerns about the potential implications for patient care by substituting robots where human interactions used to exist. But Khachikyan emphasizes that the goal is not to replace health care workers but to fill in where current gaps exist.
Only partially autonomous, for now
Robin is described as 30% autonomous, with the remaining 70% controlled by a team of operators and employees who monitor her. Khachikyan said every interaction with a patient is documented to help the robot gather more data. He emphasizes Robin follows HIPAA rules and may be able to function without the help of humans in the future.
“Imagine a pure emotional intelligence like WALL-E,” said Khachikyan, referring to the 2008 movie. “We’re trying to create that.”
Robin ‘brings joy to everyone’
Robin already appears to be a hit with patients.
“She brings joy to everyone,” Samantha de Silva, a speech language pathologist who works at one of the hospitals with the robot, told the AP. “She walks down the halls, everyone loves to chat with her, say hello.”
Robin can catch the emotions of the patient she is talking to and will reflect their mood in her responses. She even remembers patients’ favorite songs and was requested by one woman having a panic attack. Robin was able to soothe the patient with her favorite tunes.
Robin’s future ambitions
Engineers are reportedly working to make Robin capable of checking a person’s vitals and then relaying that information to the rest of the medical team. There are even efforts to allow the robot to eventually help elderly patients change their clothes and assist them in the bathroom, according to the AP.
More Robins may soon be needed. According to the Association for American Medical Colleges, the U.S. could face a shortage of up to 86,000 physicians in the next 11 years.
In the meantime, she’s happy to engage with patients through music, conversation or a friendly game of tic-tac-toe.
