Seoul ¨C Chung Yun-hee awoke to a body in revolt. Drenched in sweat and wracked with pain, the septuagenarian crawled into the bathroom of her small, quiet apartment on the outskirts of Seoul. She was still hunched over the toilet, vomiting, when her smartphone rang.
A bright, articulate female voice asked how she was doing. Chung managed a few strained words ¡ª too sick to talk ¡ª and hung up.
Help ?arrived anyway. The caller?, an artificial intelligence chatbot nicknamed ¡°Talking ?Buddy,¡± immediately alerted a social worker. Within hours, ?Chung was in surgery for an acute hernia.
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