From the New York Times, I'm Rachel Abrams, and this is the Daily.

For years, caretakers and health officials have warned about the dangers of loneliness and social isolation,

especially for older Americans

who increasingly find themselves alone.

Today, my colleague Eli Saslow has the story of one woman who's using technology, artificial

intelligence, to keep her independence, and to keep her company.

Music to keep her independence, and to keep her company.

It's Thursday, May 28th.

Eliasas, welcome to The Daily.

Thanks so much.

Happy to be with you.

You are a journalist who is known for spending a lot of time with individual people who have these really gripping and evocative stories that don't just tell us about their lives, but actually tell us something much bigger about the time that we live in.

And that is absolutely what you did with a recent story you wrote about how, in one instance,

artificial intelligence is being used to treat loneliness.

And what it captured was not just this unique moment that we're in, where technology is playing an increasingly large role in our lives,

but also it captured how people are grappling with what that role should be.

So just to start off, why don't you tell us what you set out to do with this story and what you were

interested in?

Yeah, I've spent a lot of time traveling around the country over the last years and spending

time with people as the health care systems around them sort of collapsed, and people's lives

in the United States have gotten lonelier.

You know, we have the data to back this up in almost every way.

...