Online Companions: 'must-have' technology to provide comfort in old age?

13 May 2010

Could you ever see the day when you relied on an online companion to provide emotional support and comfort in your old age? According to Professor Yorick Wilks from Oxford University, in the near future we could use artificial companions to chat with and reminisce over photos, to use as our agents for day- to-day errands and phone calls, even to act as our attorney in the event that we are incapacitated. Professor Wilks has developed a project called the Senior Companion: a computer software agent, which is designed to make life less lonely for the elderly and gives users a friendly interface with the internet.

The British computer scientist created and led for two-years the EU-funded Companions project, a consortium of 14 partners from across Europe and the US, which examined how we might change the way we think about the relationships of people to computers and the internet. The aim is to create an online companion that is not a robot - but has a role as a conversationalist or confidante that can develop a relationship with its human owner over a long period of time. He says the key to a successful relationship lies in how far the companion can use and understand speech so as to return emotionally satisfying answers as well as the right content.

Professor Wilks, a Senior Research Fellow from the University's Oxford Internet Institute, said: 'Artificial intelligence has undergone dramatic changes. It once concentrated on building engineering systems that impressed us with their cognitive competence. We are now researching the potential uses of online companions that are designed to impress through their sociability. Our research suggests they could ease feelings of loneliness and provide practical support - being available to talk at whatever time suited the user. They could also act as agents to jog the memory, or provide assistance with tasks such as making phone calls or appointments on their owner's behalf.'

Professor Wilks's research suggests that by personalising the Senior Companion, it would connect emotionally with its owner and be an informed adviser on issues concerning its user. It would have access to the whole internet, extracting information from sites such as Wikipedia and Facebook. Research has been conducted into how the Companion would use online photographs and personal information as prompts for conversations with its owner, retaining information about its owner from the responses given. Over the long term the Companion would know its owner's daily habits, preferences or needs, becoming more and more like its owner in its conversational mode. After its owner's death, it could even serve as a 'memorial' shrine that the bereaved could take comfort from.

Research on the current 'digital divide' suggests that older people are less comfortable with using the internet. Professor Wilks believes the Companion could help to address this issue, if the elderly were given the appropriate assistance and incentives to use the system. He also highlights the interest of the Japanese government and industry in developing such innovations to support the ageing population. Demonstrators of online companions have already been developed with the 'Wig-dog', a companion with a dog's face and big appealing eyes, being the most favourably received by research participants. However, Professor Wilks's research suggests that the appearance is less important to the user than factors such as what the Companion has to say and its portability.

Professor Wilks said: 'The Tamogotchi craze demonstrated that even primitive digital pet toys elicited a surprisingly strong caring, or sometimes guilty, response from their human owners and keepers. If we look at the Tamagotchi experience and factor in that people with pets survive longer than those without, we can imagine that the Senior Companion might become an essential life-enhancing object for the growing elderly population of the US and elsewhere. As well as the Senior Companion, in future Companions could provide guidance and support for dieters or athletes, or be available for bored astronauts on long space missions.'

Professor Wilks will be rewarded for his services to computing at a ceremony in San Francisco on June 26 when he will be awarded a Fellowship from the Association for Computing Machinery. Professor Wilks has also brought out a new book examining the key social, psychological, ethnical and design issues of online companions called Close Engagement with Artificial Companions (published 2010).

For more information or to arrange an interview with Professor Yorick Wilks who is currently in the US, please contact him on +001 850 202 4495 or email at: yorick.wilks@oii.ox.ac.uk.