Voice Assistants

The COVID-19 global pandemic has been referred to as “the loneliness epidemic.” At the height of quarantine and social distancing, loneliness and isolation permeated society. With limited human interaction, many people turned to voice assistants for connection.  According to a 2020 Adobe survey, 39% of voice assistant users began using…

University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications doctoral student Fanjue Liu is exploring how AI-enabled virtual assistants, like Alexa or Siri, can mitigate feelings of loneliness and isolation, particularly during the pandemic.  She was interviewed on Sept. 10, 2021 about her research. Below the video is an edited transcript of…