The AI That Calls Your Elderly Parents If You Can't...

Save Our Souls. Really.

From https://www.404media.co/i-tested-the-ai-that-calls-your-elderly-parents-if-you-cant-bothered/?ref=daily-stories-newsletter

Image: Screenshot from inTouch's website.

I Tested The AI That Calls Your Elderly Parents If You Can't Be Bothered

inTouch says on its website "Busy life? You can’t call your parent every day—but we can." My own mum said she would feel terrible if her child used it.

An AI startup promises to call your elderly parents for you if you don’t have time, or simply don’t want to, and we tested out the service.

Called inTouch, the service uses an AI generated voice so your parent receives a phone call in which they can talk to the AI about, for example, how their day is going, their hobbies, and how they’re feeling. An AI-generated summary of the conversation is then sent to the child or whoever setup the account, and includes a visual indicator of their state of mind, such as “bad mood” or “neutral mood.”

Obviously, the idea of having an AI call your lonely relative because you can’t or don’t feel like it is dystopian, insulting, and especially non-human, even more so than other AI-based creations. The creator, though, says it can provide a way to keep in touch with relatives and make sure they’re safe.

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(I.A. generated result - I didn’t want to set up a ”profile” to access costs information…)

I can imagine some circumstances making very difficult to get in touch with your parents. But !

According to https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/wages, the average hourly wage in USA is about $30.

My naive question is : for the same price, would’nt you (and your old mum or dad !) prefer to have a contact with a human being, even if it's just 15 minutes once a week?

Perhaps even someone in the neighborhood, who would need a little ”extra job” ?

Just asking…

Please share your thoughts !