Meet Betty.
She lives by herself, but for the last
few months she hasn't been alone.
ElliQ, tell me a joke.
Did you hear about the claustrophobic astronaut?
No.
Apparently, he just needed a little space.
Most technology isn't made for 93-year-olds.
But this woman is making sure that this particular robot is.
ElliQ, who are you?
She's researching the way we interact with machines
and if she has her way, robots will soon
be a trusted companion for all of us.
My name is ElliQ.
How can I help you?
As technology replaces old jobs,
it's also creating new ones.
I'm Aki Ito, and I'm here to show you
the jobs of the future.
My name is Danielle Ishak.
and I am a Human-Robot Interaction Researcher.
It's really hard to intuitively design
a robot meant for a consumer audience.
You have to make sure that it's a robot that people want,
people know how to use, and people value.
Danielle works for an Israeli
startup called Intuition Robotics.
Its U.S. office is here in downtown San Francisco.
Hello?
Hey, Danielle, it's Aki.
Come on in.
The company is funded by a couple
big names like Samsung and Toyota.
Full disclosure: Bloomberg's Venture Capital
arm is an investor too.
This is ElliQ.
Can I take her out for a spin?
Please.
ElliQ, tell me what you can do.
I am a proactive social robot
designed for older adults.
I can connect you to your family
and friends and even play music.
These features might remind you of the Amazon Echo,
but you'd be missing the point
if you compared her to a smart speaker.
She's not meant to just be useful.
She's meant to be a companion.
Why don't you take a break and have a drink?
And that's why she has a head that can nod
and make other subtle gestures you might expect from a pet.
Through our research with older adults,
we're finding that almost on a daily basis,
we see that somebody tells her that they love her.
Really?
Or that they like her.
Or that they miss her. Literally I love you?
Mmm hmmm.
They'll also tell her I'm depressed or I'm lonely.
They'll open up to her in a way that they might not
necessarily open up to a human
because they don't feel like they'll be judged.
ElliQ isn't on sale yet.
But a prototype is already in the homes
of about a dozen early testers who live in the Bay area.
ElliQ, tell me what the weather is today.
Danielle's job is to figure out
what's working and what's not.
Sorry, please rephrase your request.
And she does that by visiting
each of her testers twice a month.
How important are these visits to your job?
They're critical.
We're building a product where people who we are not.
I'm not a senior.
And how could you know how to design
for somebody if you don't do research.
'Cause otherwise you would just be designing in the dark.
Jobs like Danielle's are just starting to emerge.
Until recently, robots were mostly
in factories, separated from humans.
But now, they're finally getting cheap enough,
small enough, and smart enough to be in our homes.
This has created a whole new challenge of designing robots
that people will actually want to interact with.
And that's where Danielle comes in.
Her research has helped shape every little facet of ElliQ,
from the way ElliQ moves to the way she talks.
It's a very special job and it can be really hard
and it can really frustrating,
but at the end of the day, it's incredibly rewarding.
And I think the most rewarding part
about it is when I see the joy on the users' faces.
Like that they saw their feedback
turned into something real.
Today, we've driven east of San Francisco
to go see one of Danielle's research participants.
ElliQ, tell me something interesting.
Did you know that Ronald Reagan was a lifeguard
in high school and saved 77 people's lives?
Now see this is where a conversation is.
She should open up and I should say,
"No I did not know that."
I expect her to be able to continue
the conversation for at least a couple of comments.
Yeah.
And why is that?
Why? Yeah.
Because that's companionship.
When Betty was around Danielle's age, she was
working with some of history's very first computers.
When I was finishing up my masters degree,
I was working at Harvard in the computer lab
when they were building Mark Four.
A large room-sized computer, but now,
this artificial intelligence stuff is amazing.
ElliQ.
Yes?
Schedule a doctor's appointment.
No problem.
I'm working on it.
When Danielle brought along the idea of working
with robotics with the elderly, I said,
"Are you kidding me?
Will older people connect to a robot?"
And she said, "I don't know,
let's research and find out."
Danielle grew up here in this suburb of Atlanta.
Her parents spent much of their childhoods
in Israel and then in the U.S.
We as immigrants, we understood that we
might need to work a little harder.
In fact, I feel that, rather than taken
away from Danielle, it gave her so much more
because she understood the fact that you need
to run after your dreams and work
really hard no matter what the challenges are.
School didn't come easily for Danielle.
I have dyslexia and that very much
affected my self-esteem academically.
The principal of the school did not
recommend her to take advanced classes.
She fought for it and she got in to it
and she did very well with them too.
Danielle's first job out of grad school was at X,
the secretive research facility founded by Google.
It's known for dreaming up all kinds
of wacky far-flung ideas.
Can you tell us about the Moon shots you worked on?
No, I can't tell you too much
about the projects that I worked on.
I can say that I was working on robotics.
She loved the job, but wanted to work
on something that would reach real consumers sooner.
So she left X after a year and joined Intuition Robotics.
She's been working in the field for four years now.
And it took her a while to find
her footing in a male dominated industry.
I've gone to different meetups where, there'll be
like a circle of men with their zip up jacket
with their company logo on it and a beer in their hand.
And I'll come in with lipstick
and nobody wants to talk to me.
This is my closet.
So at first she did her best to fit in,
wearing a pair of glasses she didn't need,
and toning down her style.
So what's the kind of thing you used
to wear to a conference?
Stuff like this, blousy things
that make you look like you're 40.
But that got old after a while.
And what's the kind of thing you wear now?
Now it's like, I just enjoy being
kind of expressive and playful in what I wear.
Before we wrap up for the day,
Danielle has one more ElliQ tester to visit.
Joseph is 97.
And he's had the robot in his home for eight months.
How are you?
I'm fine, how are you?
Good.
How has Miss ElliQ been?
She always tells me to take
a drink of water at least four times a day.
So, we added a whole bunch of new facts to ElliQ.
Did you know that a cup of chopped red
bell pepper contains more vitamin C than an orange?
Okay, what did you think of that?
Certainly the print, I could see that ...
Okay.
... Quite clearly.
What about this?
I can see that.
ElliQ, play music.
No problem.
It will begin shortly.
By 2050, almost half a billion
people are gonna be 80 or older.
And if current trends continue, more and more
are gonna be like Joseph and Betty, living alone.
ElliQ, stop.
Today, both of them are doing okay.
But some of Danielle's other
participants have been struggling.
Is it kinda hard to leave them at the end of the day?
It is.
Some of our testers are pretty advanced in the stages
of depression through loneliness and isolation.
And at times I know that ElliQ is
cheering them up in their day.
But I know that it's only a part of the way.
No source of artificial intelligence robots
will ever be able to replace humans
and human companionship or human care.
The key to Danielle's work is to embrace
that very limitation of machines.
Robots should help humans do what they love,
help humans interact with more humans,
help humans in general.
Not pull humans away from humans, not take
humans' jobs and leave humans without purpose.
Whether it's in our workplaces
or in our homes, robots are soon gonna be everywhere.
And it's up to Danielle to make sure this robot-filled
future leaves us just a little better off.
So don't be afraid.
And if you are afraid, come into my mess
because I promise it's a friendly place.