‘Care bots’ are on the rise and replacing human caregivers

The care bots look less like robot butlers and nurses and more like pieces of code and algorithms - and they're everywhere

• Can a piece of software look after your elderly parent?

If you Google care bots", you'll see an army of robot butlers and nurses, taking vital signs in hospitals, handing red roses to patients, serving juice to the elderly. For the most part these are just sci-fi fantasies. The care bots that already exist come in a different guise.

These care bots look less like robots and more like invisible pieces of code, webcams and algorithms. They can control who gets what test at the doctor's office or how many care hours are received by a person on Medicaid. And they're everywhere. Increasingly, human caregivers work through and alongside automated systems that set forth recommendations, manage and surveil their labor, and allocate resources.