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This Startup Is Ready For The Year Of The Robot And AI Companions

ElliQ in conversation, January 2024

Intuition Robotics

2024 is going to be the year of the robot and the year of the AI companion. Humanoid robots and AI conversations were the two AI-related themes that have emerged from the latest annual avalanche of predictions and trends forecasting for the new year. Sticking to its patient, focused and contrarian approach, startup Intuition Robotics has been preparing for this for the last eight years.

2024 will be AI’s “leap forward” year, says the New York Times, with robots handling more complex tasks, “using the same kind of technology that underpins chatbots.” MIT Technology Review believes “tech giants” will deliver new tools that will allow us to create our own mini chatbots that cater to our specific needs, and that we will see “more general-purpose robots that can do a wider range of tasks,” enabled by generative AI. Conversation is already emerging as the standard user interface for both enterprise and consumer applications and solutions, says IDC and DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman, now at the helm of the new AI unicorn Inflection.ai, sees “interactive AI” as what’s coming after generative AI.

Over the last eight years, Intuition Robotics has pursued its quest to understand how to create an enduring and deep relationship between a human and a machine, focusing exclusively on older adults living alone. Contrary to other social and at-home robots which provide a very specific service or perform multiple functions in multiple settings, Intuition Robotics has methodically experimented with ways to develop trusting relationships specifically with older adults, learn their behavioral characteristics, habits, and preferences, and evolve its product based on their feedback.

The star of this science project has been ElliQ, a decidedly non-humanoid lamp-like robot. Its LED lighting display conveys subtle emotional expressions, giving the device a friendly and warm personification while keeping its “machine identity.” The years Intuition Robotics spent perfecting its interactions have resulted in 90% of users engaging with ElliQ every day, and a 70% response rate to the interactions proactively initiated by ElliQ. The average user interacts with ElliQ more than 30 times daily, even six months after receiving it.

Intuition Robotics may have found the secret to machine companionship, based on its years of working to improve machine conversation, with its contrarian spirit also guiding the way it evolves its business. “We’re not running a sprint in this company, we’re not trying to do a quick flip and make money,” says co-founder and CEO Dor Skuler. “We’re trying to build a long-term business and it will take however long it will take.”

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Contrariness also led the company to insist in the era of “software is eating the world” that hardware is no less important. Channeling Steve Jobs, Skuler says “we believe that very tight integrations of software and hardware to solve specific problems are the way to go.”

Intuition Robotics’ innovative and long-term perspective is particularly important given the complex and conservative economic sector it is targeting: Healthcare. It has entered this market armed with data showing the connection between loneliness and health and demonstrating the efficacy of its robot companion.

About one-in-two adults in America reports experiencing loneliness and, according to the U.S. Surgeon General, the mortality impact of being socially disconnected is similar to that caused by smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day. Last year, The New York State Office for the Aging announced the results of a pilot with more than 800 New Yorkers, reporting that ElliQ has achieved a 95% reduction in loneliness and great improvement in well-being among older adults using the device. It has also “demonstrated exceptionally high levels of engagement consistently over time… More than 75% of these interactions are related to improving the older adults’ social, physical and mental well-being.”

In addition to a fully subsidized service through government agencies such as The New York State Office for the Aging and similar agencies in Florida, Michigan, Nevada and Washington state, ElliQ is currently available through Medicaid Managed Care Organizations providers and healthcare payers. Expanding this list will take time. “To work with healthcare organizations, you need to create actuary proof,” explains Skuler. This means collecting and analyzing data showing the extent of the reduction in the cost of healthcare over a period of time for users of ElliQ. Wisconsin is the first state in which ElliQ is available through Medicaid providers and additional ones in other states are expected later this year.

To meet the anticipated increased demand, Intuition Robotics introduced ElliQ 3.0 at CES 2024. Built for scale, the new version is lighter, smaller, with improved overall resilience and ease-of-use. It enhances ElliQ’s interactions by incorporating generative AI for more open-ended and natural conversations. Its unique relationship orchestration engine makes real-time decisions regarding actions, scripted conversations and which of the three integrated large language models or LLMs to use.

Each conversation is now classified and remembered, to be referenced in future conversations. Guardrail mechanisms monitor and mediate the conversation in real-time, to ensure safety. “[Generative AI] is a game changer for us,” says Skuler, “we can have any conversation on any topic. And we have worked hard over the last year and a half to make sure it sounds like [a personalized and customized] ElliQ and not like a generic LLM. ElliQ continues to be very contextual and goal oriented.”

The addition of Generative AI helps enhance the connection of ElliQ users to their family, friends and the larger community, including their physicians, by injecting more content into their communications and creating new opportunities for creating content. For example, ElliQ can interview the older adult and create a short movie of their life, to be shared with their families.

Addressing the social determinants of health, Intuition Robotics also ensures that the ongoing connection to the family and beyond is bi-directional by offering the free ElliQ Connect app. “80% of ElliQ users have least one family member that’s regularly using the app,” reports Skuler. To further encourage social connectedness, ElliQ now features synchronized events, such as a Bingo game, where ElliQ users can participate in real-time with other older adults.

From conversation to companionship to community, Intuition Robotics continues to advance our understanding of how to build an enduring and fruitful relationship between machines and humans.

 

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