Artificial intelligence for natural intelligence: Using AI to help people with dementia

AI’s Breakthrough: Extending Cognitive Health for Dementia Patients

Mr. Babak Parviz, Founder and CEO of NewDays, highlighted the profound impact of cognitive impairment on an individual’s identity and loved ones. The ability to commit, recall, and reason defines us, and its decline is emotionally taxing. He shared the sobering statistic that over 90% of individuals are likely to personally experience conditions like mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or dementia, underscoring a critical global health challenge.

Mr. Parviz emphasized that currently, there is no pharmaceutical cure for these debilitating diseases, leaving millions worldwide without effective medical recourse. However, clinically proven neuropsychological interventions exist, validated through randomized clinical trials. These methods meaningfully alter how individuals experience cognitive decline, operating on the scientific principle of brain plasticity.

These interventions include cognitive stimulation therapy, cognitive training, and cognitive rehabilitation. Mr. Parviz cited a Harvard University clinical trial led by Professor Hiroko Dodge, which demonstrated that structured conversations, conducted multiple times weekly over a year, could delay the symptoms of mild cognitive impairment by over six months.

While effective, these interventions face a significant hurdle: scalability. They represent truly personalized medicine, requiring frequent, one-on-one interactions tailored to each patient’s unique needs. The intensive labor involved, requiring trained individuals for multiple sessions weekly, makes them prohibitively expensive and impossible to deploy widely.

This is where the new generation of artificial intelligence offers a transformative solution. Mr. Parviz introduced a hybrid system designed to overcome this scalability challenge. Patients interact with a human expert clinician, typically via video, once or twice a month. A custom-built generative AI system then handles frequent, personalized brain exercises and conversations, adapting to individual needs multiple times a week.

A continuous feedback loop is vital: the AI reports its observations from human-AI interactions to the human clinician, who provides guidance back to the AI, ensuring expert oversight. Mr. Parviz confirmed this system has been deployed with actual patients, demonstrating that for those using it for over a year, disease symptoms can be pushed back by more than a year.

This breakthrough offers invaluable time back to individuals, allowing them to live more independently and on their own terms, rather than being dictated by cognitive impairment. Mr. Parviz concluded on a hopeful note, emphasizing that this scalable intervention, powered by modern artificial intelligence, can provide recourse for millions who currently have none.