Tapestry

Aging better, Dadbot

A geriatric psychiatrist says that if we celebrated as people enter older stages of life, there would be a really profound shift in the way society thinks about aging. Meanwhile a man turns his father into an AI, and he wants you to be able to do the same.
A resident approaches humanoid robot 'Pepper' to pat its head during an afternoon exercise routine at Shin-tomi nursing home in Tokyo. (Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

A geriatric psychiatrist says that if we celebrated as people enter older stages of life, there would be a really profound shift in the way society thinks about aging. Instead of dreading it, we should look forward to it.

James Vlahos built a chatbot that responds like his dead father. Now he wants everyone else to have what he has — a lasting interactive memento of a dead loved one. But can software truly capture a human spirit?