The Korean STEPI research team participating in the EU Horizon Europe project AIOLIA held a transdisciplinary expert workshop in Seoul on 26 November 2025. Within AIOLIA, STEPI is responsible for Use Case #9 “AI systems as personal companions to assist senior citizens”.
Personal companion robots developed to support the emotional well-being and independent daily living of older adults currently incorporate features such as LLM-based conversational interaction, daily-living support functions (e.g., medication reminders), and entertainment functions including music and exercise programs. These robots are now being deployed mainly through municipal-level social service channels.
The STEPI research team is working to analyze the risks that may arise as these robots interact with older adults and social-service providers, to explore technical and organizational measures to prevent or mitigate such risks, and to develop guidelines based on these findings.
A key research strategy of the STEPI team is co-creation with a broad range of experts, including AI system companies, AI service developers, elder-care service professionals, and AI ethics researchers. To this end, the team conducted workshops in addition to small-scale FGIs and interviews.
The workshop held on 26 November was the second in a series, following a previous workshop held on 17 September. The first workshop focused on identifying risks, risk factors, and ethical principles related to interactions between personal companion robots and older adults, their families, social-service providers, and service institutions. The second workshop focused on discussions around risk severityand the need for risk controls.
The STEPI team considers the workshop a meaningful opportunity to understand diverse perspectives on AI ethics and to explore practical ways to operationalize AI ethical principles in real-world settings.
