The technology of the future paints a very lonely picture for all of us

By Samantha Murphy Kelly, CNN Business | Updated 7:56 AM ET, Sat January 11, 2020

New York (CNN Business) While standing next to Samsung’s new softball-shaped robot Ballie at the CES tech show this week, a company spokesperson told me the personal assistant prototype may one day be able to roll over to me and call 911 if I’ve fallen down.

My dark-yet-immediate reaction was to wonder whether the newly-announced “artificial humans” from startup Neon a few booths over would be able to do the same. If no one else was around, could I lean on a somewhat realistic-looking avatar — one I’d built a relationship, even a friendship, with — to know when I’m in need of medical assistance? It was a bleak realization that so much of the tech I’d seen at the annual electronics expo painted a dystopian picture of life alone. There was the cute robotic cat that responds to your commands and an even cuter toilet paper robot that delivers you a fresh roll when no one else is around to help. Meanwhile, the Lovot robot exists to give people hugs. […]

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