Inside the AI healthcare revolution: meeting the robots that can detect Alzheimer's and depression

Rudzicz, who is also an assistant professor in computer science at the University of Toronto, admits there are complex regulatory issues around the extent to which AI machines should be used to diagnose patients. Currently, his models are being piloted in the largest network of retirement homes in North America, and among elderly patients in Edinburgh and Nice, to collect data and train the machines to understand different languages and accents. At present, they are only being used only to map cognitive decline within existing patients rather than actually diagnosis new ones. "We have always been careful to position this as an assessment aid rather than straight diagnosis," Rudzicz says. "One of the main risks I see with AI in healthcare is people can put a lot of faith into it and discount other sources of evidence."