Seattle-based AI start-up aims to help with cognitive decline

SEATTLE — Seattle-based NewDays AI, has launched a program to help people who are worried about or facing cognitive decline.

“In best cases, we can push back the symptoms of the disease,” CEO of NewDays AI Babak Parviz said. “And I think that’s really important because people really care about their ability to remember things, people really care about their ability to reason.”

Parviz has an extensive tech background, as a former VP of Amazon and founder of Google Glass. Now he is focusing his efforts on this new technology, which he said was not even possible just three years ago.

“But more recently, we went through an inflection point in the ability of the technology to do things that are very powerful, very new, so now we can actually deploy it,” he said.

The technology works by keeping people’s minds active. The AI, Sunny, asks questions out loud like “what was a recent moment that made you smile?” or instructs puzzle work like “I’ll say two simple words and your job is to remember those words and make a sentence or two with them.”

Parviz said the neuro-psychological methods used by the technology are based on “gold standard” clinical trials.

“We transitioned that to be delivered mostly by artificial intelligence and partly by human connections,” he said. “The same way that maybe you have a knee pain and go see a therapist and go to personalized sessions over time and get better, this is the equivalent for cognition.”

The start-up has launched in Washington, California, Florida, and Texas.

Its reach can be extremely large; The Alzheimer’s Association estimates that more than 7 million Americans are living with the disease today. Parviz also noted that 1 in 3 Americans over 65 have serious cognitive concerns.

“This is a poster child of the good we can do with this new generation of AI,” he said.

NewDays AI said that “100% of our customers” report “feeling better or a lot better,” with a 4.5/5 satisfaction rating.