Social robots in emotional healthcare were designed to support humans by means of social interaction, conversation, and mimicry of human behaviors. They can also be used to provide emotional companionship to humans whenever these humans feel lonely or depressed. Claudia Shettini discusses the role of social robots in emotional healthcare and the ethical issues surrounding them.

Italy was a little slow to embrace new AI technologies and lagged well behind its European counterparts when the AI Big Bang suddenly burst onto the scene less than a decade ago. Claudia Schettini picks up the baton on how Italy got up to speed by establishing a National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence.