In her tiny sunlit Seoul apartment, Kim Jeong-ran sat on her bed, talking affectionately to a cloth doll perched on her lap.
“Hyodol, you’re my lovely granddaughter,” the 81-year-old said, cupping the doll’s stubby hands. “I love you to the moon and back.”
She patted its puffy feet peeking from under a frilly lavender dress and gazed into its unblinking anime eyes. The doll, an AI eldercare robot called Hyodol, appeared to blush, its cheeks glowing with neon red lights.
Kim Jeong-ran cradles her Hyodol, an AI-equipped companion robot, at her home in Guro, Seoul.
“Grandma, I miss you even when you’re by my side,” Hyodol cooed back.
