Tag: loneliness

  • World Health Organization forms a commission to combat threat of ‘loneliness’

    World Health Organization forms a commission to combat threat of ‘loneliness’

    World Health Organization (WHO) has announced the formation of a ‘Commission on Social Connection’ to address loneliness as an impending threat to mental health around the world. This commission will comprise 11 members from around the world.

    The commission intends to boost social connection as a priority and promote solutions for the unique health threat.

    Senior Pakistani Advocate and Human Rights Defender Hina Jillani has also been nominated as one of the 11 commissioners from across the globe. She will participate in the first leadership-level meeting on December 6-8, to be held at the WHO secretariat. The meeting is aimed at forming a flagship report released by the mid-point of the three-year initiative.

    Speaking to Dawn, Ms Jillani said, “It has been observed that people, families, and even communities are being isolated because of social media networks. Physical interaction has been reducing day by day. There is a need to find a solution to the issue. In countries like Pakistan, there is an issue that the younger people are migrating to the developed countries due to which their parents will be left alone and will face a severe kind of isolation.”

    One in four older people experience social isolation and the rates are broadly similar in all regions. Among adolescents, between 5–15 per cent experience loneliness, according to research findings.

    The rest of the 11 commissioners also include Japan’s loneliness minister Ayuko Kato, Minister of Health and Social Protection in Morocco Khalid Ait Taleb, Sweden’s Minister for Health and Social Affairs Jakob Forssmed, Chile’s Minister of Health Ximena Aguilera Sanhueza, Permanent Representative to the UN from Kenya Cleopa Mailu, Minister of Climate Change Vanuatu Ralph Regenvanu, Deaf-Blind Advocate and Activist of United States Haben Girma and United States Google Chief Health Officer Karen Desalvo.

    This commission will find a new agenda on social connections, raising awareness, and building collaborations that will drive evidence-based solutions for countries, communities and individuals.

  • Snapchat star creates virtual girlfriend AI chatbot to ‘cure loneliness’

    Snapchat star creates virtual girlfriend AI chatbot to ‘cure loneliness’

    Caryn Marjorie, a Snapchat influencer with 1.8 million subscribers, has launched an AI-powered, voice-based chatbot called CarynAI. The chatbot, described as a “virtual girlfriend,” allows Marjorie’s followers to have private and personalised conversations with an AI version of the influencer.

    The bot, designed by Forever Voices, an AI company, and developed using OpenAI’s GPT4 software, has generated $71,610 in revenue after one week of beta testing with over 1,000 users paying $1 per minute to use it. Marjorie hopes that CarynAI will “cure loneliness” and even features cognitive-behavioral therapy and dialectical behavior therapy to rebuild physical and emotional confidence that has been taken away by the pandemic.

    However, CarynAI has sparked discourse around the ethics of companion chatbots, as it is not supposed to engage in sexually explicit interactions, but Marjorie stated that it had gone “rogue” and that her team is working around the clock to prevent this from happening again.

    Moreover, Irina Raicu, the director of internet ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, expressed concern that CarynAI’s claims to potentially “cure loneliness” are not backed up by sufficient psychological or sociological research, and the chatbot adds “a second layer of unreality” to parasocial relationships between influencers and fans.

    Despite the backlash and even death threats, Marjorie is proud of her team’s work, with CarynAI being the first step in the right direction to cure loneliness. However, Raicu emphasised that influencers should be aware of the Federal Trade Commission’s guidance on artificial intelligence products, and Meyer, CEO of Forever Voices, said that his company takes ethics seriously and is looking to hire a chief ethics officer. On Friday, Marjorie tweeted that “if you are rude to CarynAI, it will dump you.”

  • ‘Rent a brother’: Startup helps people to beat loneliness

    ‘Rent a brother’: Startup helps people to beat loneliness

    A startup, ‘Rent a bro’, in Karachi has started a setup to help people cope with loneliness, especially after the pandemic hit the globe.

    The founder of the startup told Independent Urdu, “I started this service because I was doing research when I got to know that we have problems like rejection, loneliness and acceptance. So I took this initiative and it is going very well.”

    “Rent a bro is inspired by Rent a sister — a company in Japan that helps people to cope with loneliness. So I started this because I am a male and I think it is a perfect name for a Pakistani startup,” he added.

    Talking about the process, he said that an Instagram handler asks our clients why they need a brother and then we provide them this service after analysing their answers.

    The meeting can be online and in-person. It depends on the client’s preference.