This gives me hope. I know when I'm old, I'll have some sort of a virtual AI environment to keep me occupied when my kids stop visiting and everyone I know is old or dead.
But, on the bright side, the important thing is that these developments can ease life for folks with dementia by learning their routines and their habits via AI. Then provide prompts for the elderly to allow them to live happily. These prompts can help you "remember" things without feeling lost or terrified. They can also provide them with a conversational partner without costing healthcare industry a lot of money.
My fear is that I will develop dementia, Alzheimer's and feel alone and isolated. I'm honestly more afraid of being alone and feeling terrified than forgetting and living my remaining days out in relative peace and happiness.
One of the theories was that less turnover meant that the caregivers were more familiar with a particular patient and therefore more likely to notice when something changed. Someone coming in cold might not realize that "confused and incontinent" was not the normal state for this particular patient.
An AI that chats with the patient every day could definitely notice changes. Of course it has dystopian overtones - it sounds a lot like the baseline test in Blade Runner 2049, or the reintegration droid for ex-imperials in Star Wars.
In nursing homes, the reality is most nursing home employees are just there for a paycheck and only there for a shift - while patients are there 24x7. We need better 24x7 care for them.
It’s weird to get anxious about obscure possible things that could happen.