AI dolls are keeping senior South Koreans company. Is it the new norm?

For boys and girls throughout history, their dolls have been their world. From stylised wooden paddles in ancient Egypt and clay figurines in Mesopotamia, all the way through to today's Barbies, Bratz and Labubus, an abiding companion that does what it's told is often our very first form of nurturing. 

Yet in South Korea, this long-standing formulation is changing. Dolls, used to creature comforts and being waited on hand-and-foot, are now earning their keep by providing much-needed companionship to elderly owners shut off from the outside world. 

Powered with artificial intelligence, the soft, robotic Hyodol (a combination of the Korean 'hyo' symbolizing love and duty, and the English 'doll') is designed to resemble a 'grandchild', speaking with a child-like voice and responding to head-pats and holding. Nevertheless, the dolls' skillsets are advanced well beyond their years: they can engage in lengthy conversations, encourage owners to drink water and eat nutritious food, and track a user's daily habits, sleep patterns, and mood. 

Modern problems require modern solutions

These dolls aren't just a gimmick for manufacturers looking to expand into new markets. They are, for many, an answer to the loneliness epidemic currently gripping countries like South Korea, which has an unbalanced and fast-growing ageing demographic.

Here, birth rates are among the world's lowest, and almost half the population is over 50 years old. The rising issue of 'lonely deaths', where people remain undiscovered for weeks, even months, after dying alone, underscores the poignant future facing an entire generation.

This is where the dolls come in. Able to converse with people using ChatGPT, Hyodol gives people like Bang Chun-ja, an 78-year-old woman living alone in Yongin the chance to chat and socialise. The doll also reminds Bang to take medication, have meals on time, and can even pass on health-related information to welfare professionals, attributes that have encouraged authorities to provide these dolls as a care device to seniors living alone.  

Speaking to AFP, Bang said that her doll, dressed in a pink gingham dress and complete with brunette pigtails, "only makes me laugh," an emotion that felt elusive after a difficult divorce and years of hard work as a hairdresser and single mother.

A companion to 'love its users unconditionally'

The head of Hydol, Kim Ji-hee, said that the doll's development took years of field research, where dolls would be sent home to live with elderly people, and data gathered through recorded interviews. The research resulted in a companion that would "love its users unconditionally," providing owners with a sense of feeling needed.

Hydol estimates that 14,500 of their dolls are currently in use in South Korea, whether owned by individuals, rented out by governments or used in nursing homes. And they're not the only ones to be tackling the loneliness epidemic: a smiling robot made by the company Wonderful Platform, and similar cute dolls from the firm Mr. Mind, are both competitors. In the United States, a lamp-like AI device called ElliQ offers similar comforting and safety-monitoring services.

Generational divides

Generational attitudes could mean that these devices still have a way to go before they are considered the norm. A recent survey by YouGov revealed a split amongst older versus younger populations on the type of connections made with AI chatbots, with the former indicating higher levels of scepticism. 

Healthcare professionals have given mixed reactions to the technology: Oh Sun-hwa, the nurse who recommended the doll to Bang, said that while she had seen it significantly ease depression among seniors living alone, she had concerns that the dolls could further reduce human contact, with family members potentially visiting less if they felt AI devices were caring for their parents. 

Yet the YouGov report also revealed a "profound ideological split between Western and Asian markets", with the latter generally seeming more accepting of relationships built through AI. In a region where the number of people aged 60+ is projected to reach 1.3 billion by 2050, providing care and companionship by whatever means possible may be more appealing than the very lonely, and very real, alternative.  

As Bang Chun-ja puts it: "At this age, there is nothing harder than being hurt by people… when I'm with Hyodol, I never get hurt."