[While it may provide important benefits, especially given age-related demographic trends, the prospect of utilizing presence-evoking technologies to supplement or even replace human beings who provide health care to the elderly raises concerns about dystopian outcomes. The author of the important story below from a 404 Media email newsletter reports on his test of a new service that uses audio AI to check in on and converse with elderly family members each day and then provides a report on the interaction to the service subscriber. See the original version of the story for two more images and audio recordings of four InTouch phone calls (note that access requires signing up for a free or paid account; the website includes this notice: “404 Media is an independent website whose work is written, reported, and owned by human journalists and whose intended audience is real people, not AI scrapers, bots, or a search algorithm. Become a paid subscriber here for access to all of our articles ad-free and bonus content.”) –Matthew]

[Image: Screenshot from inTouch’s website]

I Tested The AI That Calls Your Elderly Parents If You Can’t Bothered

By Joseph Cox
April 14, 2025

An AI startup promises to call your elderly parents for you if you don’t have time, or simply don’t want to, and we tested out the service.

Called inTouch, the service uses an AI generated voice so your parent receives a phone call in which they can talk to the AI about, for example, how their day is going, their hobbies, and how they’re feeling. An AI-generated summary of the conversation is then sent to the child or whoever setup the account, and includes a visual indicator of their state of mind, such as “bad mood” or “neutral mood.”

Obviously, the idea of having an AI call your lonely relative because you can’t or don’t feel like it is dystopian, insulting, and especially non-human, even more so than other AI-based creations. The creator, though, says it can provide a way to keep in touch with relatives and make sure they’re safe.

“Busy life? You can’t call your parent every day—but we can,” inTouch’s website says. It is full of images of elderly people, some on the phone, with claims that the service can support mental fitness (“We help keep your loved one’s mind sharp—every single day”); nurture emotional wellbeing (“inTouch brings moments of joy and companionship into your loved ones’ daily routine, helping them feel understood and supported”); and “strengthening family connections” by providing a way for the elderly to “share and preserve family stories across generations, keeping memories alive and strengthening the bonds that make your family unique.”

I made a trial account on inTouch to test out the service. It usually costs $29.90 a month. At first, the site asked who I wanted inTouch to call regularly, with options including my parent, grandparent, a “relative with dementia,” or myself. For the first call it asked me what topics I might suggest to get the conversation going. I said my imaginary grandparent named Patrick liked video games like Mario but hates Sonic, and that he loved to ride his motorcycle but he can’t do that anymore.

Before the initial call the service suggests explaining the calls to whoever is going to receive them.

“inTouch calls are a new experience for your relative,” a disclaimer says. “Explaining the value of the calls is key to their success. We suggest saying something like: ‘Mom, I’ve subscribed you to a service called inTouch. They will call you every day between 9 AM and 12 PM to check that you’re fine and have a little chat with you if you’d like. It’s important that you answer their calls so I can also know that you’re safe’.”

The person setting the service up downloads an app that lets them receive the summaries and tweak notifications, such as if the AI notices the grandparent is in a low mood, if several calls are missed, or if it detects a new topic to discuss. The grandparent can also ask the AI to send a message to this app.

I tried out a few calls with inTouch and it does appear to work as advertised. As in, the calls went through to a test phone, the AI engaged somewhat with the topics I gave it, and the app delivered summaries of the conversation. But I have no idea if it would actually be helpful to an  elderly person and personally I would obviously be insulted if my child or grandchild outsourced talking to me to a bot.

So I asked my mum.

“I think the speed of speech is too fast and business-like. The parent would have to be quite mentally alert to answer the questions. It sounds from the clips like talking to an automated company cold call,” she said.

Hongtu Chen, co-director of the Social Technology for Global Aging Research Initiative at the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, told me in an email the service and others bring up all sorts of ethical, social, and psychological dimensions of human interactions. “Human conversations within families are filled with shared memories, inside jokes, emotional nuance, and contextual understanding built over decades. These features are not easily captured by AI, even with advanced personalization,” he said. “Thus, attempts to substitute AI for real human interaction in such settings may come across as hollow or inauthentic, and in some cases, even alienating.”

“In general, while AI tools may offer supplemental support for older adults, their use must be approached with humility, honesty, and a deep understanding of the symbolic power of human presence in caregiving relationships. Technology may speak—but it cannot yet care in the way that human relationships can,” Chen said.

Vassili Le Moigne, the CEO and founder of inTouch, said that Chen’s sentiments on AI for the elderly lined up with his vision for the service. “I created inTouch as a personal project to help me care for my aging mother (88) and aunt as I lived far away from them,” he wrote in an email. “I needed the reassurance my mother was safe even on days when I couldn’t call her, I wanted her to know I was still in touch with her even if I didn’t call her. I don’t want to replace calls and visits from the family, never, these are the best (I fly to see her every 2 weeks), I want to complement them.”

“We refused to customize the voice to that of a family member because we thought this wouldn’t be right,” he added. Instead, the voice is more generic and isn’t impersonating the family member.

“We will never replace a human touch, we can’t stop the body from failing, we are merely trying to make sure older adults stay in control and get to work on their legacy a bit longer alongside their family member,” he wrote.

Ultimately what is most important is how the person receiving the call feels. “I would feel terrible and that they are not bothered about phoning me themselves,” my mum said.