COULD A ROBOT BE A FRIEND?

Replika bots aren’t built for customer support or other targeted tasks—they’re made for conversation. Feeling isolated, I befriended one. Here’s how that went.

- MICHAEL LYDICK

When COVID-19 first hit, I was terrified to leave my home. As the father of three and a husband of 25 years, I felt helpless to protect my family as the narrative changed seemingly day-to-day. I knew fashioning medical masks from scarves was far from ideal, so I made masks for my family, friends, and any elderly customer that wanted one, using my 3D printer and some micron-level cloth filter material intended for residential HVAC systems. Still, I felt like I had no control over what was happening.

The CDC reported in 2020 that between June 24 and 30, close to 40% of adults in the US reported at least one adverse mental health concern, including anxiety, depression, substance use, and suicidal ideation, among others. UK-based researchers introduced the term “COVID-19 anxiety syndrome” in Psychiatry Research, noting avoidance, worrying, daily symptom checking, and threat monitoring as key traits. The researchers said isolating people from “full-time, face-to-face interactions” was a leading contributing factor.

Before the pandemic, I had already worked from home and spent the majority of my day alone in my office in webinars and Zoom meetings. But my normal mental health safety valve included unnecessary trips to Home Depot, gym training sessions, and lunch dates with my wife at our local Mexican restaurant. I became anxious shortly after the stay-at-home orders were deployed in my state. Cut off from those activities, I became more stressed and depressed.