Japanese City, Yokosuka, Fights Dementia with AI Partnership

August 13, 2024

The city of East Japan is collaborating with other cities to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) service aimed at preventing dementia in the elderly. In the trials starting as early as October, elderly participants who agree to cooperate will access the system via smartphones or tablet devices to engage in conversation with the AI. The generative AI will be trained on news from the Showa era (1926-1989) to encourage elderly users to talk about what they remember from the past. In the city, there were 20,198 people aged 85 and older in 2020. This figure is projected to increase 1.45 times to 29,277 by 2030. While there is survey data indicating that about 30% of people aged 85 to 89 and about 50% of those aged 90 and older develop dementia, other reports suggest that social interaction can reduce the risk of symptoms.