As artificial intelligence-powered smart assistants have become ubiquitous in recent years, so too have worries about these inanimate objects “eavesdropping” on private conversations. But that seeming invasion of privacy could be the key to better health management, according to the growing numbers of tech developers building voice-analyzing AI tools.
One member of that group is Ellipsis Health, a San Francisco-based startup creating a system that uses deep learning AI to analyze a voice sample. The AI models listen to both semantic and acoustic patterns—that is, what a person says and how they say it—to determine the severity of an individual’s stress, anxiety and depression.
Though Ellipsis’ technology was originally designed to take in short voice samples specifically collected during online, in-person or phone conversations with healthcare providers or case managers, a new partnership will allow the AI to work more organically, picking up users’ speech patterns around the clock, as they go about their daily lives.