Three months ago, my history club had a talk on the history and future of robots. The speaker, who has a Ph.D. in artificial intelligence, predicted that five years from now, every home would have one ...

Juanita’s friend always asks how she’s feeling, wants to know if she slept well and tells jokes that are so funny, Juanita repeats them later at dinner. Oh, and Juanita’s friend happens to be a robot.

Sitting inside her Florida home, Deanna Dezern can’t help but feel an overwhelming sense of loneliness. This 80-year-old woman has been in self-quarantine for nearly two months out of fear she might ...