AI speakers play growing role in daily life of Japan's seniors and disabled

Smart speakers with artificial intelligence technology are increasingly being employed to help older people or those with disabilities in their daily lives, with their voice-activated functionalities proving especially convenient for those with mobility issues or wanting to connect. The daily routine of Katsunori Endo, a 63-year-old resident of Yamagata Prefecture, includes greeting his AI speaker and asking for the day's weather and news. "It's convenient because it tells me the weather for specific regions," Endo said, adding that it will also tell him what happened on a particular day in history, or alert him to seasonal dates. Developed by e-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc., Alexa is a smart speaker capable of performing a plethora of tasks in response to voice commands, including providing real-time information and controlling several other smart devices as a home automation system.