AI and IDD

Artificial Intelligence, otherwise known as AI, has been an ongoing phenomenon and gauge of pubic interest in recent years. Individuals with developmental disabilities have benefited from the use of AI and can benefit at much larger degrees with the latest innovations of AI.

​ Artificial intelligence has been a very talked about topic in the last few years, especially as its popularity and usage has increased dramatically in the last year. With different sites such as Chat GPT, Google’s Bard, etc, the use of AI has been more accessible than ever before, with interest and usage expected to only increase more over time. Not only these tools, but AI voice command tools, such as Siri, Amazon’s Echo, or Google Home, is artificial intelligence that helps assist us in our everyday lives. AI is the latest trend across many platforms, although it’s been around for a while. But, how does AI relate to developmental disabilities? Assistive technology from a general sense is important, and at times, essential, for many individuals with developmental disabilities.

While AI can help anyone, it can especially help individuals with developmental disabilities live more independently. Not only with the examples mentioned in the previous paragraph, but there are also new innovative AI technologies that enable individuals with developmental disabilities, such as AI companion robots or AI monitoring systems within the home, to name a couple of examples. The advancement of AI will only lead to further advancements specifically in assistive technology for individuals with developmental disabilities. There have been obvious cautions and warnings surrounding the overall use and development of AI, but when developed with good intentions and used properly, AI can and will continue to be a great form of assistive technology for individuals that may need it to live more independently. 

Moving forward, not only is AI a way for individuals with developmental disabilities to live more independently, but AI is also a tool that has been used to enhance the research on developmental disabilities. An example of this being The Waisman Center at the University of Wisconsin Madison, where they use AI in the form of machine learning “in order to better integrate their data, find new patterns they hadn’t seen before, or have a less biased analyses.” As they are still fully developing and enhancing their work with AI as a research tool in regards to researching various developmental disabilities, it’s important that the AI is being used correctly and without bias in order to have continual unbiased research results that are new and couldn’t be done without the support of AI. The Waisman Center also aims to create their AI Methods as a more widely used approach, not just for those with expertise in coding.

In addition to the work being conducted at the University of Wisconsin's Waisman Center, researchers at Michigan State University were given a grant from the National Science Foundation for $600,000 in late 2023. The purpose of the grant, and thus research, is to utilize AI devices called WHIT (Wearable Human Interaction Tracker) in the classrooms of children with autism and other developmental disabilities. It will "track parameters such as the child’s location, frontal orientation, speech and movement." Children in classrooms will wear the devices to help teachers learn more about the social interactions regarding children with autism and other developmental disabilities, and over time, be able to be scaled to those with mental health conditions. As quoted in this Michigan State University  article, “We are developing an end-to-end full cycle system that starts at collecting data from children’s bodies via wearables and ends with machine-interpreted algorithmic observations and interventions.” This research project, expecting to conclude in 2026, is yet another way that AI is enhancing the way we research and discover more within developmental disabilities.​

In all, Artificial Intelligence is not an entirely new avenue of technology, although its rising popularity in recent times has only shown few of the many routes AI can go for individuals with developmental disabilities as well as how we research developmental disabilities. AI is still needed to be used and developed in caution, but it can be an important part of the future for many individuals with developmental disabilities in ensuring their independence as well as how we innovate our research into developmental disabilities.