A computer can hear Alzheimer's eighteen months before symptoms

Long before a patient forgets a name or loses their keys, the brain's physical structure begins to shift, altering the way they speak. In South Korea, an artificial intelligence system monitoring one million seniors has learned to detect these nearly imperceptible changes in pitch and rhythm. By analyzing the way a person’s voice flows, the software can identify precursors to dementia with ninety-two percent accuracy, often eighteen months before clinical symptoms appear.