Artificial intimacy: Prescribing robots to combat loneliness

After Tony’s wife died, days would go by without him speaking to anyone. Then he got a live-in AI robot called ElliQ. It chats to him, plays games with him and reminds him to eat and exercise. Since ElliQ arrived, Tony has been much less lonely. In this episode: policymakers are trialling AI companions to help tackle loneliness among elderly and vulnerable populations. But can machines really replace human company? And are we outsourcing care for marginalised communities to robots? Featuring Anthony Niemiec, Anh Hee Soon, Ki Kyung-eun, Greg Olsen, director of New York State Office for the Aging, and Caroline Green, director of research at the University of Oxford’s Institute for Ethics in AI. Check out some of the FT’s reporting on this subject on FT.com : The reality of chatbot-induced delusions Can ChatGPT help with a midlife crisis? The problem with AI and ‘empathy’ Artificial Intimacy is presented by Cristina Criddle and produced by Persis Love and Edwin Lane. Additional reporting and production by Jen Kwon and Michela Tindera. The executive producer is Flo Phillips. Sound design is by Breen Turner and Sam Giovinco. The FT’s global head of audio is Cheryl Brumley. The FT does not use generative AI to voice its podcasts. Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You can listen to Artificial intimacy: Prescribing robots to combat loneliness online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Artificial intimacy: Prescribing robots to combat loneliness is an episode from FT Tech Tonic by Saragosa Manuela.

This episode is 30:48 long.

This episode was published on Mar 11, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from FT Tech Tonic when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.