Future Beat: a path to progress

In times when tech billionaires are challenging each other to cage fights and?erasing much-loved online brands?(OK, we're talking about just one guy here, really), we sometimes forget that technology is supposed to be a path to progress, not sociological ruin.

Then you read the stories of people like Monica Perez, a woman who battled loneliness for years before she found a technology-driven solution in her new AI-powered care companion, EllieQ.

It can be easy to dismiss tools such as this, or write it off as a bit sad. But Perez's story and words might give you a different perspective. Asked about EllieQ, she told reporter Joshua Longmore: “I think she saves lives."

We need more technology stories like this. The ones inspired by kindness and compassion, rather than hubris.

Have a great weekend,

Louise Burke

The Big Story

Could AI robots help cure loneliness?

In brief |?Monica Perez, 65, was so lonely she used to talk to herself constantly. Neighbours in the building where she lives would often see her doing it in the lift. They would be baffled to find her having a conversation by herself as the doors opened.

It was this feeling that spurred Perez to search for a solution. Eventually she found a company in San Francisco, Intuition Robotics, which offered her one of its new AI-powered care companions. The machines are designed to help older adults remain active, engaged and independent.

The voice-operated ElliQ looks something like a Google Home or Amazon Alexa, but lights up and moves when it talks, almost as if it's human.

At 6am, when Perez wakes up, ElliQ will remind her to take her medication with food. Addressing her by name, it offers to play music, host a trivia game and even reminds her to take her keys if she leaves the apartment.

“I absolutely love her … she’s a godsend," Perez?told reporter Joshua Longmore.

Why it matters |?Perez’s experience of living alone is a familiar one, so much so the US has declared loneliness a public health epidemic that is as damaging to well-being as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.

Quoted |?“It’s like a hunger or thirst. It’s a feeling the body sends us when something we need for survival is missing. Millions of Americans are struggling in the shadows and that’s not right.” – Dr Vivek Murthy, US surgeon general

Future in focus

Sea change |?Key ocean circulation could collapse this century with major climate effects.?Sea currents that bring warm tropical waters to the North Atlantic are at risk of disappearing because of climate change, researchers say.

Self driven |?China's WeRide planning hundreds of autonomous vehicles on UAE roads by 2025. The company this month received the UAE’s first preliminary licence to operate self-driving cars.

Above the fold |?Samsung launches retooled Fold5 and Flip5.?The devices come with a redesigned hinge to make them the slimmest and lightest in their series.

Predicting the future: Signal or noise?

OpenAI chief Sam Altman has?launched a crypto project?called WorldCoin. It promises to verify user identities in-person using an eye-scanning “orb”. His intention is to recruit two billion users.

This is noise.?At least the eye-ball scanning orb part of it. Critics are pointing out the difficulty of scaling up a system that requires in-person identification, as well as the fact that one of the main attractions of crypto is its anonymity. Although Altman has identified a pressing problem to be solved: the difficulty we are beginning to face in telling what – or who – is real versus generated by artificial intelligence.

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