Penny Rapaport

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About

Penny Rapaport is a pioneering researcher at the intersection of human-robot interaction and artificial intelligence, with a primary focus on the design and evaluation of conversational agents as companion technologies. Her most notable contribution, "A Week With a Conversational Large Language Model Companion Robot" (2025), has garnered 6 citations and represents a groundbreaking empirical study that explores the real-world integration of large language models into socially assistive robots. This work provides critical insights into how users form emotional bonds with AI companions over time, examining factors such as trust, engagement, and the psychological impact of sustained interaction. Rapaport’s research is distinguished by its emphasis on longitudinal, ecologically valid methodologies, moving beyond lab-based experiments to capture the nuanced dynamics of human-AI relationships in everyday settings. Her findings have significant implications for the development of empathetic, context-aware robots in healthcare, eldercare, and mental health support. By bridging advances in natural language processing with robotics, Rapaport is shaping the future of how we design machines that can genuinely understand and respond to human emotional needs.