When Machun’s movement became limited by Covid, she found it physically and mentally challenging. But thanks to the flexible set-up and human connection at her new job, that’s changed. “Just seeing people smiling while they talk to me makes time fly by,” she says. “We’re on shifts chatting for one hour at a time, then we might go elsewhere, being a barista or something. It’s been fantastic for my mental health.”
I think back to what her life as a researcher must have been like, conducting intellectually stimulating tests and tasks for hours each day, and how much her life has changed since Covid. Before we know it, it’s time for us to pack up. Even though Machun and I aren’t physically in the same room, it really feels like we have been. Yuki comes over to take a picture of us together, and Machun and I swap Instagram handles.
Yuki regularly takes travelers to the café and sums up the experience from her perspective. “It’s a powerful reminder that even from afar, human connection is very real and deeply moving.”
I agree. In a world where it can seem that AI is taking place of real-life connections—just look at all the stories about AI companions, AI therapists and so on—the robots at Dawn Avatar Robot Café feel like the opposite of that. I’d arrived expecting to say ‘hello’ to some robots, but chatting to Machun was a remarkably intimate experience. Over the course of an hour, we shared stories and told jokes, laughing real laughs and feeling joyful, sad and happy—the by-product of a wide-ranging, human-to-human chat. This experience wasn’t a simulation of humanity; the robots here are beacons of authentic inclusion and enablers of real, beautiful connections.
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Kim met Machun on a Japan Highlights Family Holiday. Explore the full range of Intrepid’s Japan trips to find the right adventure for you.