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We are only just starting to see how AI will transform lives – and society – for the better

Charlotte West, Board Director, Lenovo Foundation

How is AI making a meaningful difference to people’s lives? A perfect example is provided by Iomar Barrett, a father of two young children who is living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Iomar knows that ALS will eventually deprive him of the ability to speak. This means that, until very recently, he would now be contemplating a future in which he is unable to read bedtime stories to his children or sing them lullabies.  

But Iomar today can do both of these things through an AI-powered avatar that looks and sounds exactly like him. The proof of concept behind this solution, which builds on years of partnership between Lenovo and assistive-tech pioneer the Scott-Morgan Foundation, works by giving Iomar a specially designed keyboard interface and tracking where he directs his gaze on the screen. Words that he ‘selects’ through the interface are then spoken by the avatar. The solution, which brings together multiple AI-related technologies, is not only benefiting Iomar and his family but is scalable, meaning it could one day help millions of people otherwise silenced by muscular or neurological conditions. 

Heart arrythmia and dementia are two other conditions that AI is helping to address. In Brazil, 56-year-old Adão was given an unobtrusive wearable device, developed by Lenovo in partnership with the Instituto do Coração cardiology hospital, to monitor his heartbeats and his heart’s electrical signals. Using advanced AI, the device can identify potential arrhythmia events, enabling rapid and potentially life-saving interventions. For Adão, this meant doctors could treat him for pulmonary thromboembolism, a serious condition related to the palpitations he recorded while recovering from surgery. Meanwhile, in the UK, people diagnosed with dementia and Alzheimer’s can now engage in unscripted, natural conversations with ‘Liv’, a photoreal 3D avatar that answers their questions by drawing on the lived experiences of a community of hundreds of people living with the condition. 

We are only just beginning to see what AI can do for people with long-term conditions. The technology is also levelling the playing field for traditionally underrepresented groups, such as by tracking hand movements to provide real-time text and voice translations for people using sign language. It is even enabling people to experience heritage and culture that would otherwise be inaccessible to them, such as the thousand-year-old Yingxian wooden pagoda which is now too fragile for people to visit. Through an extremely lifelike AI-powered digital twin, which is so detailed it captures subtle imperfections in ancient statues, people can now experience this extraordinary structure close up once again. 

So, what else is possible? At the Lenovo AI for Social Impact Lab, where we give AI training and resources to climate and education-focused non-profits, we believe technology can help humanity find solutions to its most pressing issues. Our experience is that it’s a question of looking at what the technology can do and asking, with a spirit of curiosity and innovation, how it can be adapted to meet the needs of different communities. Often it may be necessary to change course, depending on what the community needs, based on consultations and exploratory conversations. Nonetheless, the potential for good is limitless. 

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Editor: Jonathan Derbyshire

Report author: Lucy Colback

Sub-editor: Will Bramhill

Production: George Kyriakos