TV and radio personality Ash Pollard has divided the internet after sharing a photo of her daughters with a humanoid robot at an aged care facility, with some people “enraged” by the interaction.
Pollard, who rose to fame after appearing on My Kitchen Rules in 2015, shared photos over the weekend of her daughters, Clementine and Claudette, visiting their great-grandmother at her new living facility.
During the visit, the girls met Abi, an AI-powered robot and new “resident” at the facility.
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Abi’s presence quickly sparked a debate online over whether robots have a place in aged care, and whether they can truly provide meaningful companionship to elderly residents.
“I shared these pics on stories over the weekend… so many mixed reviews!!” Pollard wrote on Instagram alongside images of the robot and her daughters.
“I took the girls to visit their Great Grandmama at her new living facility, there we met the new resident bot, Abi.
“She goes around chatting to the residents. I thought it was cool but some people were enraged! What do you think?”
Pollard’s post has since divided opinion, with some arguing robots could help combat loneliness among elderly people, while others raised concerns about technology replacing genuine human interaction.
“No, there is absolutely nothing ‘cool’ about using a robot to entertain elderly people in an aged care facility,” one person commented.
“Just because someone is old, frail or has dementia does not mean they are any less deserving of genuine human interaction, conversation, compassion and connection.
“They deserve people. They deserve conversation. They deserve dignity. They deserve to feel valued.”
But Abi’s creator, Australian mechatronics engineer Grace Brown, says the robot is not designed to replace human relationships but to provide companionship when those relationships are not always available.
Brown, 26, is the founder and CEO of Andromeda Robotics, which developed AI-powered Abi and has placed its personalised robot companions in 30 nursing homes across Australia.
The company’s website says its robots are designed to help aged care and assisted living teams “bring joy and connection to residents more often”.
Brown also responded to Pollard’s Instagram post, acknowledging the concerns while stressing residents would never be forced to interact with Abi.
“I also think it’s easy to forget that meaningful human connection is, unfortunately, a privilege that not everyone has equal access to,” Brown wrote.
“Some people are widowed. Some never had children. Some have family who live far away. Some simply don’t have anyone coming to visit them.
“@abi_humanoid exists for the moments where that void would otherwise remain empty.”
Brown said she understood the concerns about technology replacing human relationships, but argued Abi was intended to enrich, rather than replace those connections.
The debate comes as robots become an increasingly visible part of aged care, with advocates pointing to their potential to provide entertainment, conversation and companionship, while critics question whether technology can ever replicate the value of human connection.
Speaking to 7NEWS, Brown said she believed the current generation may be the last to grow up without companion robots.
“She’s meant to represent a future where technology can actually bring joy and enrich the quality of life that make human life really worthy,” Brown said.
