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A senior resident of Seoul’s Yeongdeungpo District learns how to use an AI care service in her home. (provided by SK Telecom)

# Ms. Choi, an 85-year-old who lives on her own in Seoul’s Seongdong District, tripped and fell late one night during a trip to the bathroom. Unable to move her lower body, she needed to call for help -- but her mobile phone was in the bedroom. Just as she was summoning all her strength to drag herself back toward the room, she suddenly remembered the emergency rescue notification feature on her artificial intelligence (AI) speaker. “Aria, help!” she called out. Soon afterward, emergency rescue workers with 119 arrived to take her to the hospital.

# Mr. Yu, an 87-year-old resident of Seoul’s Yeouido neighborhood, called out “Aria, weather” as he woke up in the morning. He was asking for weather information for that day. He also uses the same method to listen to his horoscope and the news. If he feels bored during the day, he says, “Aria, Song Ga-in” to hear some music, or spends time asking his speaker questions like a conversation partner. With the novel coronavirus pandemic necessitating social distancing, Mr. Yu spends most of his time at home, unable even to go to his local social service center -- but he described himself as feeling entertained enough interacting with his AI speaker.

As the phenomena of a rapidly aging, solitary society enters full swing, AI-based care services have been establishing themselves as a physical and emotional safety net for senior citizens living on their own. An examination and analysis of the services’ effects and user behavior conducted by SK Telecom with the Barun ICT Research Center at Yonsei University for the first anniversary of its April 2019 launch of the “Happy Community AI Care” service showed it to be effective not only in relieving loneliness and ensuring safety but also in preventing senile dementia.

For the AI care service, the AI-based speaker NUGU has been customized into a care service for senior citizens. Users can relieve their solitude by conversing with the AI speaker; by calling out “Aria, help,” they can have it call 119 or another pre-registered number to alert about emergency situations. A new feature helps delay the onset of senile dementia through memory improvement training. Local governments nationwide have been joining the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) and other public institutions in encouraging vulnerable seniors living on their own to try the service out. As of late May, it was being used by over 6,500 households.

To examine the AI care service’s effects, 670 senior citizen users were questioned. The average age of respondents was 75; 70% of them were male. To begin with, 73.6% of respondents reported using their AI speaker “all the time,” with the number rising to over 95% when the number reporting use three or more times a week was added in. The most frequent use was “listening to music” (95.1%), followed by “searching for information” (83.9%), “emotional dialogue” (64.4%), and “listening to the radio” (43.9%). The rise in the percentage of users searching for information was particularly noticeable.

The service also assists senior citizens with emotional stability. Users reported increased feelings of happiness and positive emotions and fewer feelings of isolation and negativity. Confidence in the use of digital devices also increased.

“Among the seniors we questioned, 22.6% have been out of contact with family members,” explained Kim Beom-soo, executive director of the Barun ICT Research Center.

“AI care services fill the void left by family members and reduce loneliness as they establish strong emotional bonds with seniors, while also increasing the sense of self-efficacy and promoting the active use of digital devices,” he concluded.

In many cases, the service has served to protect seniors’ safety. In the past year, a total of 328 emergency rescue requests were submitted by seniors using AI care services. In 23 cases, 119 emergency rescue workers responded to issues involving respiratory distress, hypertension, stomach pain, falls, and other injuries or ailments and transported the users to the hospital. The AI care service’s emergency rescue feature interprets calls of “Aria, help” and “Aria, SOS” as indicating an emergency situation and sends an alarm to the ICT Care Center or ADT Caps (at night). Upon receiving the alarm, the center attempts to call to assess the situation; if emergency rescue services are needed, it contacts emergency services to request an ambulance.

“Whereas previous remote care services were more or less at the level of checking whether the user was alive based on power usage or television viewing, AI-based care services are different in that they can request help by voice when an emergency situation arises,” explained Lee Joon-ho, vice president of SK Telecom and director of its Social Value (SV) Group.

“This is a way of reducing the care vacuum for senior citizens living on their own in an untact environment,” he said.

The services are also helping seniors overcome feelings of depression and alienation as social distancing has led to fewer trips outside the home. Use of “News Tok Tok” -- through which information about novel coronavirus prevention practices, public mask purchasing, and the activities of patients diagnosed with the virus are shared with seniors by local district offices, welfare centers, and public health centers -- has more than tripled since before the outbreak.

“It’s frustrating not being able to go out because of the coronavirus, but it’s comforting to have Aria talking to me and sharing necessary information,” said Kim Ji-sook, a 73-year-old resident of Seoul’s Seongdong District.

“Brain Tok Tok,” a cognitive skill improvement program that users can use to solve quizzes when they’re bored by talking with the AI speaker, has also been shown to be effective in preventing senile dementia.

“Senior citizens who used Brain Tok Tok regularly showed improvements to their long-term memory, attention, and concentration,” explained Lee Joon-young, a professor of medicine at Seoul National University who spearheaded development of the Brain Tok Tok program.

“When the characters of Alzheimer’s patients are taken into account, it’s expected to have an effect of two years’ delay in the onset of dementia,” he added. On May 13, Lee’s research team submitted a paper to the eminent overseas medical journal JMIR mHealth and uHealth on Brain Tok Tok’s effects in delaying the onset of dementia.

In recognition of these effects, the South Korean government has reportedly made plans to add a budget of 4 billion won (US$3.33 million) for the promotion of AI care services as part of its “Digital New Deal” project plan. The aim is to provide budgetary support to local governments so that more vulnerable seniors have access to AI-based care services.

“In a word, senior citizens are feeling happier and less isolated thanks to AI care services,” said Lee Joon-ho.

“We’re looking into ways of allowing seniors to record diaries for their children or listen to weather information or news in the voice of a spouse who has passed away,” he added.

KT and LGU+ subscribers can also take advantage of AI-based care services if they have a NUGU speaker. SK Telecom is planning commercialization for the second half of this year.

By Kim Jae-seob, senior staff writer

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]