Editor’s Note: Help is offered if you happen to or somebody is fighting suicidal ideas or psychological well being issues.
In the US: Call or textual content 988, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
Globally: The International Association for Suicide Prevention and Befrienders Worldwide have contact data for disaster facilities world wide.
They have huge, smiling eyes, ears that stick out, and converse with the cheerful chatter of a seven-year-old. Some put on pink attire with braids; others sport blue shirts and a bow tie. But these are usually not typical grandchildren. They are fabricated from cotton and steel, powered by AI, and deployed as a stunning reply to South Korea’s aged psychological well being disaster.
Every day, about 10 older adults in South Korea die by suicide.
The determine, from a sobering report revealed in June 2025 in the Journal of the Korean Medical Association, echoes a persistent and alarming pattern throughout East Asia. Places like Japan and Hong Kong have lengthy documented elevated suicide charges among the many aged. However, the scenario in South Korea notably worries native authorities, because the nation ranks one of many highest charges in the developed world and the highest throughout the Organization for Economic Co-operations and Development (OECD) nations.
“It’s a real crisis,” says Othelia E Lee, professor of social work on the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, who has researched social isolation amongst older adults in South Korea. The nation is assessed as a “super-aged” society and has greater than 10 million individuals aged 65 or older. “Now, they represent a fifth of the country’s population,” Lee says. “[It] happened so fast that the Korean government didn’t have time to (set up a) proper pension and support system. Leaving them to struggle is not an option.”
Korean seniors are dealing with an unprecedented plight: the nation’s fast financial transformation has triggered a basic shift in the nation’s conventional social material. “We now have fewer multigenerational households and less familial support, leaving one in three South Korean seniors to live alone,” Lee explains. “This isolation directly fosters financial strain, profound loneliness, and a feeling of being a burden, conditions that are directly linked to depression and suicide.”
As a strained public well being system struggles to maintain tempo with this social shift, the South Korean authorities has more and more turned to tech firms to handle the “K-elderly crisis” and fill a crucial hole in the social care workforce. This opened the door for firms like Hyodol, an AI well being care and sensible residence platform centered on a doll-like robotic given to aged individuals who stay alone. The doll-like robotic is linked to a telephone software and an online monitoring platform for relations or caregivers.
The system serves a twin goal. The robotic offers sensible help, from remedy reminders to emergency alerts, whereas additionally permitting social employees to log every day data like mealtimes remotely. But its largest profit could also be emotional.
Designed as a 15-to-20-inch huggable mushy doll, it responds to a contact on the top or the grasp of a hand. Its AI-powered chat, which speaks with the tone of a seven-year-old, offers music, dialog, and cognitive workouts. Yet, its strongest characteristic will be the easiest: the greeting that awaits a senior returning to their residence: “Grandma/Grandpa, I’ve been waiting for you all day long.”
“The cute and comforting design of Hyodol was fundamental to its effectiveness,” explains Hyodol CEO Jihee Kim. “The baby-like appearance makes it easier to build a bond and establish trust with the elderly. Its cuteness flattens the learning curve for them, who are often not very tech-savvy.”
As of November 2025, over 12,000 Hyodol robots have been deployed to aged individuals residing alone throughout South Korea, primarily distributed via authorities and public welfare applications. Kim provides that round 1,000 extra have been bought instantly by households, with the newest mannequin priced at 1.3 million received (roughly $879).
For one social employee, who requested to stay nameless to talk freely about her experiences with the aged, the robotic’s advantages are well worth the value. She remembers a “very depressed” aged lady in her care who, earlier than receiving a Hyodol, “would gaze out the window of her 11th-story balcony and contemplate jumping to her death,” she wrote by electronic mail. After the robotic was launched, the social employee stated she noticed a robust bond type, which considerably decreased the lady’s emotions of loneliness and hopelessness.
This isn’t an remoted case. In a 2024 examine, Lee reported dozens of seniors giving their robots affectionate nicknames, shopping for them child garments, and tucking them in at night time. She additionally famous that this rising affection correlates with improved psychological well being, citing a study she carried out on 69 older adults that confirmed customers had decreased despair and improved cognitive scores after utilizing Hyodol for six weeks. “We found that users with mild cognitive impairment who regularly used the robot could delay nursing home admission,” she concluded.
However, the profound attachments shaped have additionally raised moral questions on emotional dependency and potential infantilization; the usage of a baby-like doll monitoring individuals’s actions and gestures has been perceived by consultants and a few seniors themselves as diminishing their dignity and autonomy. One case that stood out to Kim concerned an aged lady who named her Hyodol after her late daughter and subsequently withdrew from social life to spend almost all her time with the robotic.
“Hyodol isn’t for everyone,” Kim acknowledges, noting that it needs to be a help instrument, not a alternative for human care. “Seniors who are more physically and mentally independent often perceive it as ‘noisy’ and ‘bothersome.’ That’s why the average age of our users is 82. It typically doesn’t appeal to those who are younger and more independent.”
While units that gather medical knowledge typically elevate issues over privateness and safety, Kim states that knowledge is anonymized, with figuring out particulars eliminated, and voice recordings are used just for inner coaching.
According to a 2020 study revealed in the Journal of Alzheimer’s illness, synthetic companions are more and more getting used globally to help older adults with cognitive impairment. However, it famous that moral pointers had not saved tempo with their fast introduction, and that these applied sciences created potential challenges round knowledgeable consent and deception.
A unique method, one which doesn’t humanize its companion robotic, has thrived in Japan, one other chief in companion robotics. There, PARO, a therapeutic child robotic seal, has discovered success as an easier, nonverbal companion, whereas retaining a mushy, plushie design.
“People may feel verbal communication with robots is not secure, as there is a risk of the conversation being leaked to others,” explains its creator, professor Takanori Shibata by electronic mail to NCS. “But PARO, because he’s just like a therapy animal, feels safe for its users. It’s been found effective for the elderly with dementia, veterans with PTSD, and children with developmental disorders,” he provides, noting its common use improved signs of tension, despair, and agitation.
Today, the PARO robotic companion is used in greater than 30 nations, from Japan to Denmark, and an identical international enlargement is already underway for Hyodol. The Korean firm is now adapting its AI to totally different cultural nuances because it prepares to enter the broader market, with a business launch deliberate for 2026.
Whether a chatty Korean “grandchild” or a therapeutic seal, such AI-powered companions could develop into extra acquainted: The international eldercare robotic market is projected to hit $7.7 billion by 2030.