GUANGZHOU, capital of Guangdong Province, has employed a talking robot to aid the rehabilitation of substance users through human-machine counseling. While robots elsewhere are made to blur the line between humans and machines, the robot in the capital of Guangdong Province boasts a special appeal to addicts who find it embarrassing to talk to human community workers. The “Tianche No. E,” which looks like a cubical Baymax, on Saturday started its tenure at a community rehab center in Nansha District. Aided by artificial intelligence algorithms and big data, the machine offers individual counseling, psychological evaluation and a reminder to take urine tests. It is co-developed by the district’s narcotics control commission and a Chinese tech firm to streamline the rehab service, according to the commission. After swiping an ID card and undergoing facial recognition, a user can start counseling, an important part of the follow-up care after drug addiction treatment, with the robot, which generates a report afterward. “Traditional counseling may have problems like repetitive questioning, a complicated archiving process and lack of analysis,” said Yang Qingqiu, deputy commander of the district anti-drug brigade, who hailed the “Tianche No. E” for reducing 80 percent of their paperwork. Meanwhile, a former drug addict said that he felt better talking with the robot on questions that he found hard to answer than when facing officials and community workers. (Xinhua) |