Could Dementia Patients Benefit from an AI Companion?
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When Frank Poulsen, 72, first started talking to the artificial intelligence companion Sunny earlier this year, she was “kind of formal,” he said. But over time, their conversations have become more familiar and engaging.
“It’s really uncanny,” he said, adding, “It really does feel like you’re having a conversation with someone who’s interested.”
One advantage of Sunny is that she doesn’t mind when Mr. Poulsen, who was diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment in 2019, repeats himself.
“He can tell a story and forget he told it and tell it again,” said Mr. Poulsen’s wife and caregiver, Cheryl Poulsen. “Sunny has no judgment.”
Sunny, which was developed by the A.I. start-up NewDays, is part of a rapidly expanding body of A.I. products designed to help people with dementia.
“I’ve never seen something quite like this in terms of a technology moving as quickly as it is, with as much money poured behind it,” said Luke Stoeckel, a program director and project scientist at the National Institute on Aging, who works on A.I. applications for dementia care. Dr. Stoeckel mentioned A.I.-based dementia diagnostics as another hot area.
Experts say A.I. companions like Sunny have the potential to help keep the brain active and alleviate loneliness in dementia patients, and to reduce some of the burden on caregivers. But there can be risks when it comes to deploying this technology in such a vulnerable population.
A Conversation Partner
Babak Parviz, the co-founder and chief executive of NewDays, said he was inspired to develop Sunny in part by his own father’s diagnosis with Alzheimer’s disease. He knew there was no cure for the condition, but he was encouraged by research showing that cognitive training exercises and guided conversations with a clinician can, in some cases, improve dementia symptoms.
Few people receive that level of in-depth care, though. “We don’t have millions of trained professionals, and even if we had them, the cost would be quite prohibitive,” Dr. Parviz said. Generative A.I. technology could help expand the reach of these therapies, he said.
Continue reading this story on the New York Times website.
