Can AI Predict Who Will Get Dementia? w/ Dr. Catherine Morgan: July 30, 2025

About 70,000 people are currently affected by dementia in New Zealand. Because of this, the healthcare cost of the neurological condition is around $274 million per year and is expected to double by 2050. But what if we could predict who was most at risk, years before obvious symptoms appear?

At the moment, health professionals can struggle to assess whether a person is likely to get dementia, based on reports of their memory loss and ability to function from patients and families. As a result, a $4 million project, which includes a team of experts from the University of Auckland and Singapore, has begun to create an AI tool that can identify a person’s dementia risk.

To talk about how this new AI tool would work, as well as how it might impact the future of prevention and treatment of the neurological condition, Producer Max to Dr Catherine Morgan, a senior research fellow from the University of Auckland.