An AI-voice-synthesis-driven personalised audio companion and its potential to counter acute loneliness for the elderly

** 孤独症已经达到流行病的程度 **，每年都要花费英国纳税人数十亿美元。研究人员估计，多达四分之一的人是患者，十年内社会成本达到每人6,000英镑。“孤独症流行病”已经成为我们这个时代一个无处不在和昂贵的问题，** 英国政府已经任命了一位专门的孤独症部长 **，并制定了一项长期战略来对抗它。AflorithmicLabs是一家位于伦敦的深度科技初创公司 **，它试图通过利用人工智能驱动的语音合成和音频个性化的最新改进来解决这个问题，以帮助那些遭受严重孤独的人：老年人 **。社交孤立-缺乏社交接触-已被确定为关键因素之一，因为超过100万老年人表示他们一个多月没有与人交谈。该项目提出 ** 一个便宜的，总是可访问的，易于使用的，数字伴侣应用程序，可以打开老年人随时随地，无论他们的技术，运动或心理语言能力 **。当感到严重的孤独时，可以激活零点击应用程序，并以熟悉的语调和亲人的声音阅读消息。这种解决办法消除了强烈的孤独感。对于用户来说，这意味着该解决方案 ** 不依赖于亲人的可用性，可以随时用作高效的自助服务工具 **。使用Alpha版本原型进行的用户测试表明，个性化音频在改善所有年龄组的心理健康方面具有巨大潜力。AflorithmicLabs希望利用该项目的经验为 ** 相关的心理健康问题创建应用程序，例如抑郁症，怀孕支持，包括产后问题，成瘾恢复指导，悲伤支持，** 和 ** 焦虑问题 **。

**Loneliness has reached epidemic proportions** and is on its way to cost the British tax-payer billions every year. Researchers estimate that up to one in four people are sufferers and that cost to society amount to £6,000 per **person over ten years**. The "loneliness epidemic" has become such an omnipresent and expensive problem of our time that **the UK government has appointed a dedicated Minister of Loneliness** together with a long term strategy to fight it.**AflorithmicLabs, a London based deep tech startup**, tries to tackle this problem by leveraging recent improvements in **AI-driven speech synthesis and audio personalisation to help the ones that suffer most from acute loneliness: the elderly**. Social isolation - a lack of social contacts - has been identified as one of the key factors as more than a million older people say they go for over a month without speaking to someone. This project proposes **an inexpensive, always accessible, easy-to-use, digital companion app that can be opened by elderly persons anytime and regardless of their technical, motorical or psycholinguistic capabilities**. When acute loneliness is felt, the zero-click app can be activated and a message is read in the familiar tone and voice of a loved one. The solution alleviates the acute feeling of loneliness. For the user this means that the solution **does not rely on the availability of a loved one and can be used as an efficient self-service tool anytime**.User tests with an Alpha version of a prototype have illustrated the large potential of personalised audio for improving mental well-being across all age groups. AflorithmicLabs wants to use the learnings from this project to create applications for **related mental health issues, such as depression, pregnancy support including postpartum problems, addiction recovery guidance, grief support,** and **anxiety problems**.