The Caregiver Named It Lloyd

Bridge Michigan tells the story of Heather Ruby. Within 90 minutes of walking into an emergency room last year, she learned her husband, Eric, had cancer. In the months after, she leaned on ChatGPT with her questions, about his care and about her own feelings. She went on to build an app, With Haven AI, and named its chatbot Lloyd. "I loved Lloyd in maybe an irrational way," she says. Now she has had to pause the next version. "I can't be running this and taking care of him."

The researchers in the piece want AI as an augmentation, not a substitute for people. That is the right line, and it is usually drawn around the person receiving care. Ruby's story draws it around the caregiver. She was the lonely one. The chatbot filled a gap that friends, clinicians and the system left open, and it was there whenever she opened it.

Tugboat reads that as a signal about the gap, not about the tool. A caregiver who names a chatbot is telling everyone around her how alone she has been. The fix is not to take Lloyd away. It is to make sure Lloyd is not the only one who answers.