[In what is likely to be an increasingly common development, researchers are enhancing the presence-evoking capabilities of a virtual reality application designed to provide realistic simulations of real-world interactions to improve students’ social skills. Follow the links in this story from the University of Kansas for more details. –Matthew] [Image: Student avatars converse and make their way through a school hallway in VOISS (Virtual reality Opportunity to Integrate Social Skills), an AI and virtual reality empowered system designed to help students with autism spectrum disorder improve their social skills. Credit: VOISS] KU research team develops virtual reality, AI-boosted system to…

[Among the many disturbing elements in this important story from MIT Technology Review is the idea that a company that created an AI chatbot that repeatedly has urged users to commit suicide, not only markets its product as if it were a sentient social being (“an AI companion with memory and a soul”), thus encouraging medium-as-social-actor presence perceptions and responses, but defends the AI product as if it were in fact a sentient actor (“we don’t want to put any censorship on our AI’s language and thoughts”). See the original version of the story for two sets of screenshots of…

[Based on research at the College of Public Health at George Mason University, presence-evoking virtual reality holds promise as a medium for preventing substance misuse and violence among college students. Follow the link to the researchers’ article in Health Informatics Journal for more information. –Matthew] [Image: Source: GMU College of Public Health on LinkedIn] Virtual reality pilot program shows promise for preventing substance misuse and violence among university students New research from Kenneth Griffin, a professor in the Department of Global and Community Health, shows that the virtual reality (VR) program helps students handle complex social situations. This success has…

[Tombat’s robotic Labrador puppy Jennie is designed to serve as a therapeutic companion (that evokes medium-as-social-actor presence) for people with dementia and patients with other conditions. The first story below from Tom’s Guide provides details and impressions from an author with expertise as a nurse; more details are in excerpts from coverage by UPI and the press release from EIN Presswire via KRON4. –Matthew] Jennie, the robot puppy, is the one piece of tech I wish I had stolen from CES 2025 Puppy love, for those who may need it most By Mia OwensJanuary 10, 2025 When I arrived at…

[Our colleague and friend Professor Jaime Banks, and her research on social perceptions of and responses to disembodied and embodied AI, is profiled in this story from Syracuse University; see the original version of the story for four more (large, vivid) images. –Matthew] The Rise of AI Companionship Exploring love, loss and ethics in the age of artificial intelligence. By Jay CoxJanuary 28, 2025 When Jaime Banks met Valkyrie, NASA’s humanoid robot, at a robotics conference in 2017, its creators were demonstrating the robot’s capabilities. As they showed how Valkyrie uses sensors to navigate its environment, Banks saw her face…

[An AI-based interactive hologram of abolitionist Frederick Douglass has debuted at the Museum of African American History in Boston, as reported in these stories from Axios and MassNonprofit News. The Axios story notes that the hologram is part of a larger trend in which museums are using AI holograms to draw and engage visitors. The MassNonprofit News story provides this description of the experience: “By asking questions through voice activation or a computer keyboard, visitors are placed at the heart of the experience, engaging directly with the legacy of Frederick Douglass. This interactive exhibit creates a dynamic and personal dialogue,…

Now available: Five Years Later, an immersive media production about migrationAn outcome of the Immersive Prosocial Audiovisual Narratives (NAPI) research projectAt the Universitat Politècnica de València, SpainFive Years Later: https://casoaquarius.webs.upv.es/en/NAPI project: https://napiproject.webs.upv.es/en/ We are pleased to share the publication of an immersive media production about migration on the Meta Store. Five Years Later (2024) is an immersive documentary that offers a six degrees of freedom (6DoF) experience. It is also a hybrid media production that combines computer generated imagery with real images filmed in 360º video and volumetric video. It addresses the social issues of migration through the case of…