Could AI keep you company as you age?

All In The Mind

ABC listen

Life Sciences, Health & Fitness, Science

4.4 • 785 Ratings

🗓️ 15 March 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Dementia usually involves a decline in your ability to remember, think and reason over time. And those with dementia are at a high risk of feeling socially isolated, lonely and depressed.

As artificial intelligence systems get better and better, researchers are investigating whether AI companion bots could help improve the lives of those with dementia.

The combination might sound counterintuitive, but researchers reckon these chatbots have some advantages over human companionship.

So, what does a conversation with an AI companion sound like? How might they help? And what do the real people these AI companions are based on think of the experience?

Today, former host of All in the Mind Lynne Malcolm reports on the developing field of AI companions for people with dementia.

If you're looking for something to listen to next, check out our episode with Lynne What's been on Lynne Malcolm's mind (since leaving All in the Mind).

Transcript

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0:00.0	ABC Listen, podcasts, radio, news, music and more.
0:08.6	How can I help you today?
0:11.2	Can you see yourself ever confiding in an AI companion?
0:15.9	You may remember me. My name's Gail. I've come to have tea with you.
0:20.0	If your initial answer is no, consider this. What if you were older and maybe feeling a
0:25.6	bit lonely or maybe suffering from dementia? And you just need a bit more support than usual.
0:30.6	Oh, Gail, I'm so sorry, my dear. It's just that my memory isn't what it used to be.
0:35.6	Come on in. Let's have a nice cup of tea together.
0:40.7	This is all in the mind. I'm Sana Khadar, and the voices you're hearing are Viv, an AI-powered digital
0:47.5	companion, and Gail Kenning from the University of New South Wales Big Anxiety Research Center, which created Viv.
0:55.6	And researchers at that center are trying to harness artificial intelligence to support people
1:01.2	facing all kinds of psychological challenges, from dementia and aging to eating disorders and
1:07.6	depression, as well as loneliness. And today, Lynn Malcolm, past presenter of All in the Mind, is with us.
1:15.6	Hello, Lynn.
1:16.5	Hi, Sana.
1:17.4	Welcome back.
1:18.1	Nice to be here.
1:19.3	So what got you interested in this topic?
1:22.1	I was intrigued.
1:23.3	It's a potentially confronting idea of creating AI companions.
1:28.5	You worry that, you know, are we replacing human beings with machines?
1:33.3	But I was so intrigued by how they're doing it that I thought I'd bring it along and explore it for the All In The Mindlessness.
	...

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