AI-Powered Sleep Analysis Predicts Dementia Years Before Symptoms Appear

Researchers at Mass General Brigham have developed an AI tool that analyzes brain wave activity during sleep using EEG recordings to predict future cognitive impairment. The study, published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, tracked women over 65 for five years, identifying subtle changes in brain wave patterns—particularly in deep sleep gamma frequencies—that preceded cognitive decline. The AI model successfully identified 85% of those who later developed impairment with an overall accuracy of 77%. These findings suggest that wearable EEG devices could become a powerful early detection tool, allowing for timely interventions to slow or prevent dementia. Researchers are now exploring whether manipulating brain activity during sleep could further reduce cognitive decline risk.

Also of note, the study suggests that wearable EEG devices could help identify individuals at risk for dementia, paving the way for earlier interventions. Maybe someday your Apple Watch will be able to detect the signs of future cognitive impairment.

Humane Unveils Ai Pin

Humane today announced their until now secret device – the Ai Pin. Check out the 10-minute introductory video with co-founders Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno. Cost is $699 for the device plus a $24 monthly fee to access the T-mobile network. I can’t wait to see how this is received/adopted by consumers. Will it be the paradigm-shifting device they hope it will be or the next Google Glass?

UPDATE: As of August 2024, Humane is scrambling to stabilize as it hits $1 million in total returns against $9 million in sales (as reported by the Verge).

Using ChatGPT for Regex

Over the past few months, I’ve been experimenting a lot with AI – ChatGPT, Stable Diffusion, Midjourney, and the explosion of Chrome extensions that put AI at your fingertips. I’ve used it to create images, draft emails, and conduct research.

So far, one of the most beneficial real-world uses for me has been with writing regular expressions. I use regex primarily with Google Analytics or Looker Studio – and only sparingly. So each time I want to use regex I have to “relearn” how to write an effective (and accurate) regular expression. Enter ChatGPT.

I gave the following prompt to ChatGPT:

Create a regular expression to find all pages that begin with /part-finder-single/ and contain lookup=vin

Within about 2 seconds, ChatGPT responded not only with the regular expression I needed (see below), but also an explanation of the components used with examples of strings that would match as well as strings that would not match. Take a look.

Sure, here’s a regular expression that should match all pages that start with “/part-finder-single/” and contain “lookup=vin” anywhere after it:

^/part-finder-single/.*lookup=vin.*

Here’s a breakdown of the different components of this regular expression:

  • ^ matches the beginning of the string.
  • /part-finder-single/ matches the literal characters “/part-finder-single/”.
  • .* matches zero or more of any character after the “/part-finder-single/” part.
  • lookup=vin matches the literal characters “lookup=vin”.
  • .* matches zero or more of any character after the “lookup=vin” part.

So this regular expression will match strings like:

  • /part-finder-single/?lookup=vin&make=Toyota
  • /part-finder-single/?year=2022&lookup=vin
  • /part-finder-single/?lookup=vin&model=Corolla
  • /part-finder-single/abc123?lookup=vin&make=Honda

but it won’t match strings that don’t start with “/part-finder-single/” or don’t contain “lookup=vin”, such as:

  • /part-finder-single/
  • /part-finder-single/?lookup=vehicle
  • /part-finder-single/1234567890
  • /part-finder-single/?make=Ford&model=Mustang

How America Uses Its Land

Via Bloomberg:

There are many statistical measures that show how productive the U.S. is. Its economy is the largest in the world and grew at a rate of 4.1 percent last quarter, its fastest pace since 2014. The unemployment rate is near the lowest mark in a half century.

What can be harder to decipher is how Americans use their land to create wealth. The 48 contiguous states alone are a 1.9 billion-acre jigsaw puzzle of cities, farms, forests and pastures that Americans use to feed themselves, power their economy and extract value for business and pleasure.

Putting all those pieces together, this map gives you a rough sense of all the ways U.S. land is used. Much of U.S. land serves specific purposes, such as the 2 million acres devoted to golf courses or the 3 million acres for airports.

Read the full article to get more details.

River Runner

I ran across a cool web app / data visualization called River Runner. Click on the map to drop a raindrop anywhere in the world and watch where it ends up. Not only does it list and map every waterway the raindrop would take to get to the ocean, it follows the route via an interactive flyover style animation.

river-runner
Follow the course a raindrop takes to the ocean from any point in the world.