Let us first understand, what is autism.
This particular psychological disorder is a classification of a type of developmental disorder that leads to the differential formation in the brain region. This disorder can be a result of genetic
origin. People with this particular disorder have differential tactics in communication with others, they may have different ways in which they may behave with others & also it's noted that autistic people have different ways to learn about things.
In psychology, “every person is unique” - a personal experience that I’d like to share to prove
that autistic people are indeed unique; I had a friend in school who was autistic, he had trouble
coping with academic activities but had excellent philosophical thinking capacity as he
maintained a notebook with a lot of philosophical writings which according to him was a way to
“let everyone know that this is how I think”
Let us also understand, what is meant by artificial intelligence.
Artificial Intelligence is an advanced version of a programmed robot that functions almost like a human being. The cognitive facility/capabilities are just almost similar to that of a person. It also
has the capacity to learn from experience & the environment just like a human being does to
develop the way it functions each time it does a task.
AI has now become a part of our lives ever since the invention of smartphones, which gave rise to virtual assistants like Siri & Alexa. They were both assigned to assist the users when it came to assisting them in finding information or even cheering them up by showing pre-programmed jokes that are released on command. We can agree that virtual reality is also part of AI, as virtual reality helps us to experience places in real-time just by being at home or even in the car.
The following research has been conducted on the role of AI in helping people with autism, but before beginning its best to say that there may be different ways to cure a psychological
disorder but its not necessary that one form of method is the right one as disorders can’t be fully
be rid of but only the intensity of it can be reduced in order to avoid any interruptions in daily life
activities.
Reviewing some companies who have aided in helping autistic people with the help of AI Behavior Imaging
The Idaho company called Boise uses an app which is called the Naturalistic Observation
Diagnostic Assessment (NODA). This app helps parents to upload videos of their children for
the process of observation & diagnosing children possibly with autism. This app assists the doctors in remotely diagnosing those with autism, also recent developments have been made where the AI system is able to observe & categorize certain behaviors that the doctors might have missed or might have not noticed when they were diagnosing.
Even though the AI in the app has advanced over the years, it still isn’t able to diagnose by
itself, all it does is make the work for the parents & doctors simpler and more efficient.
Cognoa
To follow up on the previous AI-integrated app, in Palo Alto California a screening tool called
Cognoa was created. The tool is available in mobile which assists parents in order to assess
their child by asking some questions & also assessing the videos uploaded by the parents.
from apps with AI integrated into them, we move on to robots capable to treat & assist those
with autism.
The next step in AI development is robots which have been programmed to display human
actions that include emotions & how they perceive situations & also social interactions. When it
comes to autistic people, AI robots are designed to identify & learn from their mistakes.
The robots observe facial expressions, learn how to socially interact with children with autism &
also appropriately respond to social cues.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology {(MIT), programs an AI humanoid robot}
Some researchers from MIT, designed & developed an AI robot to learn information by utilizing the data from video, and audio & measuring heart rate & also by observing their sweat levels. This particular robot after learning some data about a particular child along with their behavior & responses the robot can respond appropriately.
Manatee
BiBli, a robot programmed & developed by a Denver startup company called Manatee has partnered with Robauto which aided the development of this robot which is programmed to
communicate with children It can be challenging but the robot communicates without judgment
at the pace the child is comfortable with.
Also, this company has stated that although AI exists it's not true that it can provide all kinds of therapy, but the best it can do is provide care to those children who are unable to get any care
(stated by CEO & CO-Founder of Manatee Damayanti Dipayana).
Also, noticed that children with this particular condition find it emotionally easier to
communicate their thoughts with the screen or the robot. In the future, the robot can provide
information collected by the robot & provide them to therapists that can find things that seem
challenging for the child, which in turn will help in aiding them to feel better.
AI & Autism diagnosis {Yasemin J. Erden, Harriet Hummerstone, June 2021} This research is based on the statistics evaluated from NHS Digital (August 2020) which depicted individuals over 18 years of age who were waiting for a diagnosis for almost a year (361 days from the initial visit) & it was noticed that the older the individual was the longer was the wait to be diagnosed.
In this research, AI was observed by tech lovers as an ‘ideal’ way to improve the way &
effectiveness of the tech during diagnosing autism. Along with that machine learning (neural
networks) can be proven helpful to analyze large sets of data which quickens up the process.
Many researchers state that machine learning & AI can reduce wait time for assessment of
autism.
Usually, AI & machine learning depend on external data provided about autism based on the
knowledge that already exists & previous case studies which are measured/compared in order for the AI to produce results from its own method of assessment. AI is supposed to be having
the thought processes of a clinical therapist.
Conclusion
AI has made breakthroughs in different fields, which mainly implied making tasks easier. In
diagnosing those with autism AI has played a huge role as the above studies showed & proved.
During neuroimaging, the MRI scan used data-induced AI which helped in distinguishing the
scans to prove those who had autism & those who didn’t.
References
Autism {Explanation}
https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/facts.html#:~:text=Autism%20spectrum%20disorder%20(A
SD)%20is,most%20common%20ways%20people%20develop.
Role of AI in autism {Yasemin J. Erden, Harriet Hummerstone, June 2021}
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8246862/
Companies supporting the cause {AI technology & autistic patients}
https://www.verywellhealth.com/artificial-intelligence-to-treat-autism-
4706533#:~:text=Researchers%20are%20exploring%20the%20idea,therapies%20in%20develo
pment%20show%20promise.
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