Part I Social Isolation for Elderly in Hong Kong
At 1.38 million, the senior population in Hong Kong (those 65 and over) made up 18.4% of the total population in mid-2020. This number is projected to increase to over 2.37 million, or 36.6% of the population, by 2069 (Census and Statistics Department, 2020).
Social isolation is a common problem among the elderly. It is defined as a condition where a person lacks meaningful and high-quality relationships, is not engaged in society, and has few social contacts. Research shows that social isolation affects 32.5% of older persons in Hong Kong (Lou et al., 2017). With mass migration of the younger generation, social isolation has become even more severe for the elderlies in Hong Kong
Part II Current Solution and Its Inadequacy
Hong Kong has taken different steps to address senior social isolation. These measures comprise 104 Neighborhood Elderly Centers and Social Centers that offer personal care services and recreational activities, as well as 18 Elderly Health Centers that promote community and offer health services (Department of Health, Hong Kong, 2021; Social Welfare Department, Hong Kong, 2020).
However, around 730,000 senior citizens benefitted from the “Opportunities for the Elderly Project” in 2019–2020. But given that there were 1.38 million senior citizens in Hong Kong as of mid-2020, it’s possible that there are still almost 50% elderlies whose social needs are catered to. Additionally, they might also face physical constraints to leave their residence to participate in social events to tackle social isolation.
Part III Virtual Human and Its Application on Elderly Care
Virtual humans are computer-generated characters that can provide both verbal and non-verbal interactions by mimicing the human behaviours, such as emotional expressions, language, and body language (Pauw, 2022).
Studies have affirmed that virtual humans bring emotional relief by overcoming typical obstacles to effective sharing (Pauw, 2022). It adds values to virtual humans that they can enhance psychological and social well-being of people.
Thus, virtual humans have the potential to reduce the feeling of social isolation of elderly with the advancement of various technologies like augmented reality, artificial intelligence and computer graphics (Laga; 2023).
The development of virtual humans is still in progress. Most successful applications are still limited to AI-generated robots. For instance, Intuition Robotics has developed an AI-generated robot, ElliQ. New York Stated provided these robots for some elderlies and 95% of the users said that they found the robot helpful in reducing their loneliness and improving overall wellbeing (Mok, 2023). Despite they are yet to being virtual humans in a strict sense as they are not avatars modelled from real humans, further applications of virtual humans are foreseeable. For example, in China, scholars developed on designing dine a virtual human model to dine with empty nest elderlies (Dai & Pan, 2021).
Part IV Limitations
Issues arise due to the challenging speech patterns of the elderly. Factors such as elderlies accents, less fluent speech, and other linguistic nuances pose challenges for the virtual human caregiver in processing the elderlies’ messages.
Also, elderly individuals with limited technological experience may struggle to troubleshoot technical errors, such as dialogue mistakes, Wi-Fi connectivity issues, or malfunctioning microphones. This may again lead to frustration when interacting with virtual human caregivers. Additionally, human-like roles and appearance does not necessarily increase user’s trust on virtual human caregiver.
Lastly, the integration of virtual human caregivers may create distractions from physical or community-based interactions for the elderly.
Part V Concerns
Ethical Concern
Ethical concern arises on whether the elderly understand the operation of virtual human caregivers and give consent to the virtual human caregivers’ having all their personal and health data. The respect to consent and autonomy of the use of virtual human caregivers are in question. The diminishing of traditional filial piety culture by using the virtual human caregiver is also a concern.
Legal Concern
It is uncertain under the present law which party will be liable if the elderly suffer, be it physical or mental, by following the advice from the virtual human caregiver. For example, the AI model may trigger emotions or even injuries by using improper language when communicating with the elderly with mental illness.
Data Security Concern
Having access to a wide range of personal data of the users exposes the users to great risk of leakage of personal information and cybercriminal activities. For instance, hackers may track users’ location which may increase the risk of being burglarized if people know the elderly are not at home.
Personal information may also be used for surveillance purposes or even making clones of users for illicit purposes by capturing the sounds and faces of the users
