Dana G. Smith, Could Dementia Patients Benefit from an A.I. Companion? NYTimes, July 31, 2025.
Sunny (a commercial product):
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.
NewDays’ program, which is in the process of being rolled out, costs $99 a month and is intended to be used by people with mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia. Sometimes Sunny prompts the person to reminisce about old memories. Other times it leads them through more explicit cognitive training exercises, like asking them to remember and use specific words in a sentence. NewDays also has an in-house team of clinicians (not included in the monthly fee) to oversee the patient’s care and provide feedback to the A.I. system.
When Mr. Poulsen opens up his computer and converses with Sunny, it sounds like “he was just having a chat, like he was talking to a friend,” Mrs. Poulsen said.
A study where dementia patients interacted with humans, conversing and administering brain training exercises, showed that they worked.
NewDays has not run any studies yet about whether using its program confers the same benefits. Dr. Parviz said that Sunny’s conversations are similar to a human’s, and they are “pretty confident” they will see results comparable to what the existing clinical trials have demonstrated. But he did not provide data to back that up.
There is more compelling evidence that an A.I. companion can help people feel less lonely — a serious concern for older adults, whether or not they have cognitive impairment. Dr. De Freitas’ own research has demonstrated that, at least in healthy adults, talking to an empathetic chatbot is roughly as good at reducing loneliness as having a conversation with a human stranger.
Anecdotally, Dr. Joe Verghese, the chair of the neurology department at Stony Brook University Renaissance School of Medicine, said that the caregivers of some of his dementia patients reported that talking to an A.I. companion lifted their loved ones’ moods. “I don’t think these actually improve cognition just by those interactions,” Dr. Verghese said. “But certainly improving quality of life and improving mood in patients with cognitive impairment is an important outcome in itself.”
AI companions can also help monitor a patient:
One A.I. start-up, CloudMind, has been pilot testing its software, called BrightPath, in a handful of memory care homes. The companion, which is accessed through an app on a smartphone or tablet, chats with dementia patients about their favorite memories and hobbies; in one instance, a patient and the companion even sang together.
In addition to facilitating conversation, BrightPath produces a daily summary of what the patient talked about and an assessment of their mood. For the family, that can provide “a peek of their loved one’s life, even if they’re apart,” said Monica Tsai, CloudMind’s chief executive.
The A.I. companion might also help nursing staff identify problems faster.
There's more at the link.
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