This Alzeimer's Society article from 2019 outlines the three main ways that AI can help sufferers. The one with the most direct application to a local community is this:
www.alzheimers.org.uk/blog/artificial-intelligence-ai-dementia
"Technology like artificial intelligence will never replace person-to-person care but, used in the appropriate circumstances, could enhance care and support people affected by dementia to live at home for longer."
Seeing the power of AI tools like ChatGPT and in particular empathetic chatbots like hume.ai it is clear that they can contribute. Even the simple provision of a conversation partner that does not grow bored by repetition would be powerful.
A wide variety of approaches are being tried, for example:
[A] SupersenseTech - non-intrusive home monitoring. www.supersensetech.com
Difficult to know their progress from their website but the aim is solid, the aim being to monitor sufferers at home without violating their privacy.
"Our approach is to get products into the home earlier than current systems so that our technology can acquaint with the individual as they age in their home. By exploiting Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning developments, we make technology that learns about the individual and adapts its support as needs change over time. "
[B] AI for early detection.
Another angle on the problem is to do with the early detection of possible sufferers.
In the workshop below this was the topic: "The focus of this session is to generate a map of needs for the development of a digital platform for non-clinical remote neurodegeneration tracking and recognition."
ARTiD (Artificial Intelligence for Dementia) Workshop - Bristol March 2024
[C] AI Mind - Artifical Intelligence for Dementia Prevention (an EU programme)
"The ageing brain becomes vulnerable to decline and keeping independency in daily life can become a challenge for the elderly. People with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), an intermediate condition between normal brain ageing and dementia, may develop dementia in the future."
"With AI-Mind we aim to reduce the disease’s burden by developing novel, AI-based tools to support healthcare professionals in their diagnosis and offering timely interventions to patients."
www.ai-mind.eu
Alzeimer's Society
Useful links:
[1] 2023 Innovations
[2] dementia.longitudeprize.org