University of Minnesota Duluth's frontline workers in the making: robots

As far as Khan's aware, no one else has programmed Pepper, the world's first social humanoid robot designed by Japan-based SoftBank Robots, to act as what she calls "COVID gossip bots." It's all in the name of helping the elderly, especially during the pandemic when many are experiencing even higher levels of isolation. "We are using the concept that socialization often happens with some sort of gossip," she said. "We want to take that gossip element and use it in a positive manner. So what we're doing is we are creating an imaginary persona that is very similar to the person we are working with."