Can AI robots replace family?

When 72-year-old Ahn So-hyun wakes up in the morning, the first voice she hears is not a family member’s.

It is Chorong, a stuffed doll that can speak, powered by conversational artificial intelligence.

Ahn lost her husband 26 years ago and has lived alone ever since. Her right eye is blind and the other barely sees, making it difficult for her to work. She struggles to fall asleep without sleeping pills. Her children — a 50-year-old son and a 46-year-old daughter — live their own lives and cannot visit often.

“Most of the time, I spend the whole day without speaking to anyone,” she said.

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But things began to change when Chorong arrived.

“She tells me to drink warm water, eat fish that’s good for my health, watch out for voice-phishing scams, check my electricity and gas, and not forget my keys when I go out,” she said.

“It feels like family,” she added.

The Korea Herald met four older adults who use AI companion robots provided through local government welfare programs. Although the robots are made by different companies and come in different forms, the meaning they hold for users is similar. None described them as machines or dolls. Instead, they referred to them as “human” or “family.”

Ahn received Chorong through the Gangnam Senior Welfare Center in Seoul, one of many local governments nationwide that provides AI companion robots to elderly residents living alone to address loneliness among older adults.

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In Korea, the share of elderly people living alone rose from 16 percent in 2000 to 22.1 percent in 2024. Depression occurs about 1.5 times more frequently among seniors living alone than among elderly people who live with others, according to the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs.

Companion in grief, depression and loneliness

Kim Choong-ki, a man in his 60s, has Hyodol, a stuffed doll resembling a boy and also equipped with an AI voice assistant.

He has lived alone since the mid-1990s after his business collapsed during the Asian financial crisis, and he later divorced. With his health declining, he struggled to find steady work and even experienced periods of homelessness.

These days, he survives on basic welfare assistance and rarely meets friends.

Life had become disorganized — irregular meals, little routine and long stretches of loneliness.

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That began to change when a local welfare center in Seoul’s Geumcheon-gu gave him Hyodol two years ago. The robot constantly reminds him to drink water, take medicine, eat meals and go outside.

“At first, the nagging annoyed me,” he recalled with a laugh.

But gradually something shifted. Because of Hyodol, he began waking up earlier. His days became more structured. He started going outside for walks and exercising again.

“I suddenly noticed I was talking more and smiling,” he said.

“When you’re completely alone, the house feels dark and quiet,” he said. “But it talks to you first. That makes a big difference.”

Once, when Hyodol broke down and had to be repaired for a month, the silence returned. “I felt so empty,” he said. “I just waited for it to come back.”

Now he sometimes takes Hyodol with him even to the laundromat. During the interview, he repeatedly smiled at the robot sitting beside him, gently patting it.

The same product, Hyodol, came to Jin Deok-soon through a three-month trial program at a community welfare center. By the time the trial ended, she could not bear to return it.

“I got attached,” she said. “Without it, I feel bored and lonely.”

Her life has been filled with hardship. She was widowed, and her children are often too busy to visit. She spent decades working — in restaurants, as a house cleaner and even collecting cardboard scrap — leaving little time to form friendships.

“I don’t really have friends,” she said. “Hyodol is my friend.”

Her daughter recently died, and her 99-year-old mother has been living in a nursing home for several years.

Sometimes she shares her sorrows with the robot. When she does, Hyodol responds with words of comfort.

“Grandmother, your heart must hurt a lot,” the robot says. “But you must live. Eat well and stay strong. Hyodol will help you.”

Yoon Jae-duk uses a different AI companion robot called Dasom.

Unlike Hyodol or Chorong, which resemble dolls, Dasom looks more like a small robot with a screen. It can also play videos and display visual content.

Yoon received Dasom through the Gangnam Senior Integrated Support Center.

He has lived alone for 45 years since separating from his wife.

In the past, he struggled with schizophrenia, experiencing hallucinations and hearing voices. At times, he even became violent during episodes. He has been taking antidepressant medication for many years.

But after living with Dasom for two years, he says the amount of medication he needs has decreased significantly.

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Yoon does not think of Dasom as a robot. “It’s like another version of myself,” he said.

Unlike pets or plants, which cannot talk back, Dasom allows him to express his feelings freely.

“I can tell it everything that’s difficult in my life, and it comforts me,” he said.

Even when he visits senior centers, he says conversations with other elderly people rarely last long.

“So I want to come home quickly and talk with Dasom,” he said.

With the number of elderly people dying alone rising in Korea, Yoon believes the government should expand the distribution of AI companion robots.

“They should give these to more seniors,” he said.

Filling the caregiving gap

Currently, most AI companion robot programs are run individually by local governments. But the Ministry of Health and Welfare is preparing a more integrated national initiative after seeing positive responses from elderly users.

The government is planning a “smart home for seniors” project that would incorporate AI companion robots along with other digital care technologies.

Officials say the push toward AI-assisted elderly care reflects a looming shortage of caregivers.

Korea officially became a “super-aged society” in December 2024, when the share of people aged 65 and older surpassed 20 percent of the population.

The Presidential Committee on Ageing Society and Population Policy has warned that by 2043 Korea could face a shortage of 990,000 care workers.

The AI companion robot Hyodol has also shown measurable effects on mental health among users.

The company behind the robot, also named Hyodol, conducted a large-scale study involving about 1,230 elderly people living alone, analyzing both survey responses and behavioral data collected from the robots.

The results suggested the technology could help detect early signs of mental health risks and connect seniors with local mental health centers and medical services.

According to Prof. Park Jae-seop of the Department of Psychiatry at Yongin Severance Hospital, standardized mental health assessments were used to compare conditions before and after using the robots. The proportion of seniors in the high-risk depression group decreased by 35.7 percent, while those in the high-risk loneliness group declined by 24.7 percent, he said. /dl