Alexa Has Been Saving You Time: Now She Can Save Your Life

As we know by now, Alexa can play a song, order a pizza or do a quick online search. But now it can do something much more valuable: save your life. According to the results of a new proof-of-concept study, Alexa can accurately identify a specific pattern of breathing known as agonal breathing or gasping for air, that develops in the setting of an impending cardiac arrest, or when your heart stops beating. The research was published yesterday in the npj Digital Medicine. The implications for this novel form of contactless AI monitoring to detect cardiac arrest are broad, and offer the unique possibility to dispatch an ambulance to a victim who may be alone at home.