New BBC sitcom Ann Droid imagines a near future in which robots provide care and companionship to older people at home.
Authors
- Maria Jose Galvez Trigo
Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Human-Centred Robotics and AI, Cardiff University
- Paul Willis
Professor of Social Care, Cardiff University
The series centres on Sue, a recent widow played by Sue Johnston, her hapless son Michael and Linda, an assistive care robot played by Diane Morgan. Linda is designed to provide daily support and companionship, with predictably comic results.
As researchers in social care , ageing and human-centred robotics , we obviously watched Ann Droid with a keen eye. Beneath the jokes are questions that researchers are already tackling.
Could robots help address loneliness among older people? Can a machine provide companionship without replacing human connection? While the series exaggerates what robots can currently do, some of the technology it depicts is already being tested.
A social enterprise in south-west England has been piloting Comfort Companions in partnership with Age UK South Gloucestershire. AI-generated personas offer conversation and guidance to older people living alone and at risk of loneliness.
It runs alongside Age UK’s volunteer programme, with befrienders helping older people learn how to use the app. The AI companions are intended to supplement the waiting list for human befrienders rather than replacing them.
Physical robots are being tested too. West Berkshire Council has been running a trial using robotic pets in its care homes.
Neither scheme offers robots who look like Linda. Current systems tend to be AI avatars on a screen or robotic cats or dogs, or speakers that provide a voice in the room. They do much less than Linda too. They can’t help someone up after a fall, wash them or get them dressed.
What technology does currently do best is monitoring and prompting. Systems that can detect a fall and alert another person are far more mature, while technology can also encourage someone to contact friends, make a phone call, or get out of the house.
Can a machine make you less lonely?
It’s worth considering this distinction because loneliness is not simply the same as being alone. It’s a personal feeling that our relationships are insufficient, accompanied by a desire for more or better social contact.
A robot companion, therefore, is unlikely to solve loneliness simply by being present. What matters is the quality of the interaction and whether technology can help someone maintain relationships with the people who matter to them.
This is one of the more interesting ideas in Ann Droid. Linda can sometimes strengthen Sue’s existing relationships rather than replace them, encouraging her to meet friends and plan activities outside the home. That’s potentially a more useful way to think about companion technology. The goal need not be to create an artificial friend who substitutes for a human one, but to help people remain connected to others.
The barriers are still substantial. Battery life is a limitation. Most humanoid robots manage between 90 minutes and five hours per charge when new. This is why an overnight camping trip featured in the sitcom is a fair test on the fantasy.
Robots are much better at some tasks than others. A machine may be able to play chess, for example, but picking up an unfamiliar household object in the real world remains surprisingly difficult.
The social barriers are even harder. Robots struggle with the social subtleties that people take for granted. Systems that learn by copying human behaviour can reproduce an action without understanding its intention. They also cannot reliably interpret facial expressions.
A review of systems designed to detect emotion from faces found that they performed worst when interpreting older faces, with anger and neutral expressions among the least reliably identified. This is important in care because recognising how someone is feeling can be crucial.
Would we trust a robot carer?
Ann Droid also plays on a more instinctive discomfort: should we trust a machine that’s designed to look after us? The sitcom playfully touches on public worries about interacting with robotic companions, including people’s distrust and worries about potential harms. For example, in one episode two robots enjoy a joke together about killing their human companions.
Research suggests that older people can see value in companion robots. But acceptance depends partly on whether people feel they remain in control. And appearance is a factor too.
In 1970, the roboticist Masahiro Mori proposed the idea of the “uncanny valley”. As machines become more human-like, we initially respond more positively to them. But when they look almost human without quite getting there, that warmth can turn into discomfort.
Robots have some obvious advantages. They don’t get bored, tired or impatient. They can handle dangerous tasks and they’re available at 3am. But they can’t provide something fundamental to care: a relationship in which both people choose to be there.
That’s the bond that no machine can supply. Robots may have a useful role in social care, but they’re worth having only when people want them, alongside human care and companionship. Otherwise, we risk finding an expensive technological answer to a much harder question: why do some older people have so little human contact in the first place?
