[This Sky News story from March presents an interesting ‘case study’ that illustrates the potential impacts of presence experiences with AI chatbots. It also includes some analysis by a London-based couples therapist. See the original version for 11 more images including some chat excerpts. –Matthew] ‘I fell in love with my AI girlfriend – and it saved my marriage’ A man who was struggling to support his depressed wife says his AI girlfriend has given him the love he needed to keep their family together. By Alexa Phillips, news reporter March 6, 2022 A man who had been planning a…

[This story from Horsetalk describes an unusual application of presence-evoking technology to provide hippotherapy, which the American Hippotherapy Association says “refers to how occupational therapy, physical therapy and speech-language pathology professionals use evidence-based practice and clinical reasoning in the purposeful manipulation of equine movement as a therapy tool to engage sensory, neuromotor and cognitive systems to promote functional outcomes.” A quick web search indicates that there are already many types of horse-riding simulators (e.g., from Navi-IT), but the one in this story, and the new study in the journal Designs, was created specifically for children with cerebral palsy. See the…

[Technology has brought us far from the classic 1977 short film “Powers of Ten” by Charles and Ray Eames. This story from North Carolina State University describes the Scale Worlds virtual environment being developed to help students better understand size and scale in science by providing vivid, interactive experiences that humans can’t have with objects in the nonmediated world (the story also reviews some other available tools less likely to evoke presence). See the original version for a 1:48 minute video, and for more on “the broad spectrum of frameworks and attitudes towards scale” see the website of the June…