Who will take care of Italy's older people? Maybe it will be robots

Low birth rates and departure of young adults depleting ranks of caregivers

CARPI – The older woman asked to hear a story.

“An excellent choice,” answered the small robot, reclined like a nonchalant professor atop the classroom desk, instructing her to listen closely.

She leaned in, her wizened forehead almost touching the smooth plastic head.

“Once upon a time,” the robot began, and when the brief tale ended, it asked her what job the protagonist had.

“Shepherd,” Ms Bona Poli, 85, responded meekly.

The robot did not hear so well. She rose out of her chair and raised her voice.

“Shep-herd!” she shouted. “Fantastic,” the robot said, ges

ticulating awkwardly. “You have a memory like a steel cage.”

The scene may have the dystopian “what could go wrong?” undertones of science fiction at a moment when both the promise and perils of artificial intelligence (AI) are coming into sharper focus.

But for the exhausted caregivers at a recent meeting in Carpi, a handsome town in Italy’s most innovative region for elder care, it pointed to a welcome, not-too-distant future when humanoids might help shrinking families share the burden of keeping the Western world’s oldest population stimulated, active and healthy.

“Squat and stretch,” said the French-made robot, Nao, climbing to its feet and leading posture exercises. “Let’s move our arms and raise them high.”

The people in the room, mostly women, looked on – some amused, some wary, but all desperate to know how new technology could help them care for their ageing relatives.