The debate over WA's millionaires tax

But first, the Soundside mail bag was stuffed full with listeners weighing in on our segment yesterday, David, that conversation about robots and AI and elder care.

Um, so we wanted to turn the floor over to you listeners, sharing your thoughts as fast as possible here.

Uh, to recap, we had reporter Jacob Robbins on the show yesterday, and he has been covering Washington being the first state in the country to allow full reimbursement for Medicaid recipients to use an AI-enabled companion robot called ElliQ.

And Jacob says this little thing is a bit like a slightly anthropomorphized Amazon Alexa, but on steroids.

It's a set-top box, and it has this head that swivels around, and it can follow you.

It knows which direction you're chatting in, and so it knows if you're talking to it.

And we talked about this idea that, that a little plastic robot with chatbot capabilities could provide companionship to seniors who are home alone a lot.

ElliQ is not classified as a medical device, and it can't call 911, but it can alert someone else if you're in distress.

So, you know, we wanted to know, is this a useful supplement to at-home caregivers who are in short supply and, and quite expensive?

You had a lot of thoughts on this, so let's get right to them.

Here's Cheryl in Seattle, who left us a voicemail.

I am just saddened a bit that we have so many elderly people or people who have disabilities and who are lonely because we don't have community.

We don't take care of one another.

We don't respect older people, and, and we don't group up.

[laughs]

Thank you, Cheryl, for that call.

And y- you know, that voicemail line is always open, by the way.

If you ever wanna weigh in, 206-221-3213.

You can also text that number, 206-221-3213, if you prefer to communicate that way.

We also love to hear from you over email.

Geraldine wrote into our soundside@kuow.org email, and she shared similar feelings to Cheryl, and she put the blame squarely on technology.

I'm, I'm gonna read part of that email.

She said, "While listening to your episode, I was increasingly bewildered by the notion of a machine taking the place of a companion for those of us who experience loneliness.

I never felt lonely till cell phones and social media became ubiquitous."

Hmm.