Penn4C and Connectedly Innovative Collaboration

Penn4C is an initiative led jointly by Penn Nursing and Penn Engineering creating innovative projects with community partners addressing health care needs and social justice for marginalized and low-resource communities.
Over the past year, Penn4C has invested $383,635 in funding for eight research projects. These initiatives are designed to meet the unique needs of diverse populations, including youth, senior citizens, and homebound adults within Philadelphia communities and beyond.
One of the projects being funded is developing an AI companion prototype for Homebound Adults in collaboration with Connectedly.
The Connectedly AI Companion Project for Homebound Adults aims to address the epidemic of loneliness and social isolation in the United States among homebound older adults. Loneliness increases the risk of premature death by 26% and social isolation by 29%. There is a paucity of interventions that have been rigorously tested to combat loneliness. The interdisciplinary team and Connectedly propose developing an AI companion with input from the end users to determine what the prototype would look like and how it would function. In a multiphase project, the objective is to develop an AI companion prototype for homebound older adults.