A former physician has launched Robyn, an empathetic AI companion
Jenny Shao was a practicing physician and was in residency at Harvard. During the pandemic, Shao saw that people in isolation had a neurological impact, and they needed support. This drove her to leave her medical career, the Harvard residency, to launch a start offering an AI assistant called Robyn. Robyn is intended to be an empathic, emotionally intelligent AI for people. Navigating human relationships with AI assistants is a tricky space. On the one hand, there are general-purpose chatbots like ChatGPT; on the other, there are companion/friendship/avatar apps like Character.AI, Replika, and Friend, and even therapy apps like Feeling Great. A study in July indicated that 72% of U.S. teens have used AI companion apps. These apps have been accused of playing a part in the…
