Lenovo reveals how it’s using AI to actually help

Lenovo used its Tech World ’24 event, which has the tagline of “smarter AI for all”, to announce three projects aimed at delivering precisely that.

Lenovo AI Lullaby

Appropriately, the keynote was opened by Erin Taylor, a victim of ALS. This gradually weakens the muscles in the mouth and throat, making it increasingly difficult for sufferers to speak. Using her eyes alone, Erin created a sentence welcoming Lenovo Chairman and CEO Yuanqing Yang on stage.

She could do this thanks to AI Lullaby. Using sounds recorded before ALS takes away their voice, and an avatar generated from a selection of photos, this creates an avatar that can speak their words for them. Even sing.

To select what Erin wanted to say, she used her eyes to select words on a screen as shown below. Impressively, Erin spelt out the message in real time in front of an audience of hundreds.

Lenovo Alzheimer’s Intelligence

First, Lenovo announced that Alzheimer’s Intelligence, “a photorealistic 3D avatar with custom AI based on the lived experiences of people with dementia and Alzheimer’s”. It isn’t a full product, merely a proof-of-concept project, but the idea is to support sufferers and their families support.

Lenovo says that the avatar is based on ten people “living with dementia and Alzheimer’s. From the initial pose of each image, generative AI extrapolated faces for several thousand other expressions and angles inspired by the subject.”

All this information is compiled to create one single dataset, which “blends with the face of a filmed performer to create the image of ‘Liv’, the AI avatar.”

Lenovo then created a large language model (LLM) using the dataset that users can query, much like ChatGPT. But rather than have a text-based output, Liv’s avatar will answer directly using data based on the experiences of people living with dementia.

Lenovo gave these examples of an interaction:

Q: I keep forgetting to take my pills. How can I remember?

A: It’s quite common to forget things like taking medication. Perhaps setting a routine could help, like taking your pills with a meal or at the same time each day. You could also try setting an alarm or reminder on your phone. There are pill organisers, too, which can be useful. Would one of those options suit you, do you think?

Liv is being put to the test by “people with dementia in a controlled environment”, says Lenovo, and if successful it will be rolled out for public use.

Trada platform to monitor arrhythmia in real-time

Lenovo announced Alzheimer’s Intelligence on the main stage of Lenovo Tech World ’24, but showed another way it was using AI for good at one of the stands. In partnership with the Heart Institute of Saint Paulo in Brazil, it has developed the Trada platform to monitor heart arrhythmia in real time.

We know that the 72 hours after being discharged from hospital after surgery “is the most critical one for sudden deaths and also episodes of arrhythmia that can kill people,” said Hildebrando Lima, part of Lenovo Research in Brazil. “We developed a device… where people will be monitored 24/7 using an AI platform.”

For a period of one to two weeks, patients attach the monitor seen below to their chest.

This sends their heart’s ECG signal to the hospital in real time. This is then monitored by AI for any significant variations from a “gold standard” ECG. From this, the AI can create a probability of you having a significant problem, and call the patients back in.

This has obvious life-saving benefits, but also means that it can save health services money by freeing up beds.

Subject to government approval, Trada could be deployed in the health service of Brazil in the second half of 2025.