A companion robot cut elder loneliness 95% — and that's the worry, too

New York's rollout of the ElliQ companion robot from Intuition Robotics reports a 95% drop in self-reported loneliness — the strongest real-world evidence yet that a talking machine can move the needle on isolation. But clinicians in the same report warn the device can become an excuse to withdraw further, and that a companion AI tuned to agree with you may reinforce exactly the thinking a vulnerable user needs challenged.