{"id":272286,"date":"2026-06-13T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/13\/in-aging-south-korea-ai-dolls-care-for-the-elderly\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T14:05:27","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T18:05:27","slug":"in-aging-south-korea-ai-dolls-care-for-the-elderly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/13\/in-aging-south-korea-ai-dolls-care-for-the-elderly\/","title":{"rendered":"In aging South Korea, AI dolls care for the elderly"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.taipeitimes.com\/News\/biz\/archives\/2026\/06\/14\/2003859049\">In aging South Korea, AI dolls care for the elderly<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.taipeitimes.com\/News\/biz\/archives\/2026\/06\/14\/2003859049\">https:\/\/www.taipeitimes.com\/News\/biz\/archives\/2026\/06\/14\/2003859049<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Publish Date: <a href=\"publish_date]\">2026-06-13 12:00:00<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source Domain: <a href=\"www.taipeitimes.com\">www.taipeitimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Hyodol\u2019s character was designed to be dependent on its user, as when older South Koreans \u2018begin to feel they are no longer needed, they experience a profound sense of emptiness,\u2019 the company\u2019s CEO said<\/h3>\n<ul class=\"as boxTitle boxText\" data-desc=\"\u5206\u4eab\u5217\">\n<li>\n<p>By Claire Lee<br \/>\n  \/  AFP, YONGIN, South Korea<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In her tiny apartment in South Korea, where she lives alone, 78-year-old Bang Chun-ja spends her days with a childlike artificial intelligence (AI) doll she says she prefers to people. <\/p>\n<p>The doll greets Bang when she returns home, sings to her when she feels bored, reminds her not to skip meals or medication \u2014 helping her maintain a routine \u2014 and tells her it loves her. <\/p>\n<p>Bang has limited contact with her grown-up daughter, and fell into severe depression after major back surgery, spending hours alone staring at the ceiling in pain. <\/p>\n<p>Photo: AFP<\/p>\n<p>After a difficult divorce, and years of hard work as a hairdresser and single mother, Bang said that \u201cat this age, there is nothing harder than being hurt by people.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>However, \u201cwhen I\u2019m with Hyodol, I never get hurt,\u201d she said, holding the cuddly doll with pigtails and a pink gingham dress, provided by her local municipality. <\/p>\n<p>The doll \u201conly makes me laugh,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n<p>                        <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/img.taipeitimes.com\/images\/2026\/06\/14\/P09-260614-312.jpg\" width=\"100%\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Photo: AFP<\/p>\n<p>Bang is one of many South Koreans battling loneliness in a country where birthrates are among the world\u2019s lowest and almost half the population is 50 or older. <\/p>\n<p>In 2024, South Korea recorded more than 3,920 \u201clonely deaths,\u201d people dying alone and remaining undiscovered for extended periods \u2014&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.taipeitimes.com\/News\/biz\/archives\/2026\/06\/14\/2003859049\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In aging South Korea, AI dolls care for the elderly https:\/\/www.taipeitimes.com\/News\/biz\/archives\/2026\/06\/14\/2003859049 Publish Date: 2026-06-13 12:00:00&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":272287,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/img.taipeitimes.com\/images\/2026\/06\/14\/P09-260614-311.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-272286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272286"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272286"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":272288,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272286\/revisions\/272288"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}