Why giving your lonely parent an AI chatbot is a high-tech abdication of love.
By Neil D'Monte, Palmelle Editorial Team · Reviewed by Neil D'Monte · 7 min read · 2026-07-01
In 2023, New York State distributed over 800 robotic companion pets and AI-driven conversational devices to older adults living alone. But watch an 80-year-old woman tell an iPad about her late husband's favorite garden weeds, only to receive a synthetically cheerful, algorithmically generated response, and the triumph of technology begins to taste like ashes. We are quietly running a massive, state-funded experiment in outsourced empathy, and the test subjects are our parents.
