Queens Man Saved by AI Speaker After Overdose
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70-year-old cancer patient Doo Soo Yoo from Queens was saved by an AI speaker when he suffered food poisoning and overdosed on medication home alone. The device alerted his care manager when he stopped interacting with it.
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The NUGU smart speaker Yoo had received for free from a $500,000 state grant secured by Assemblyman Ron Kim to provide AI devices to seniors to reduce isolation.
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Kim believes the Korean-made NUGU speaker's AI has potential to do good by supplementing care for elderly and filling service gaps, as it's credited with saving 499 lives in Korea through medical alerts.
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100 Queens seniors have received free NUGU speakers so far from the grant, with another 100 to receive them, and Kim wants to expand the program's funding citywide.
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The AI speaker is meant to supplement, not replace, existing home care services and workers according to Kim.