The World Health Organization’s first virtual health worker has been designed by San Francisco and New Zealand-based company, Soul Machines.
The WHO launched Florence as a ‘trusted source of information’, designed to help the world’s 1.3 billion tobacco users quit. It uses Artificial Intelligence to dispel myths on both COVID-19 and smoking.
The organization said quitting smoking is more important than ever as evidence reveals that smokers are more vulnerable than non-smokers to developing a severe case of COVID-19.
The technology was developed by San Francisco and New Zealand-based company, Soul Machines, which says the way it is designed means every interaction is unique.
“We would call Florence a digital person,” said Greg Cross, Co-Founder of Soul Machines.
“She’s a CGI creation just as we see in the movies, but what’s unique about Florence and other digital people like her is she is autonomously animated by a digital brain. You’re having a face-to-face interaction with a digital person.
“One of the things we know from our day-to-day lives is we learn to build relationships, we learn to build trust, with face-to-face interactions.”
