Home as mind: AI extenders and affective ecologies in dementia care

• Published in: Synthese (Dordrecht) Vol. 205; no. 2; p. 63
• Main Author: Krueger, Joel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 03.02.2025; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Artificial intelligence; Case studies; Dementia; Ecology; Education; Epistemology; Logic; Metaphysics; Original Research; Philosophy; Philosophy of Language; Philosophy of Science; AI; AI extenders; Affect; Extended mind; Dementia
• ISSN: 1573-0964; 0039-7857; 1573-0964
• DOI: 10.1007/s11229-025-04923-w

I consider applications of “AI extenders” to dementia care. AI extenders are AI-powered technologies that extend minds in ways interestingly different from old-school tech like notebooks, sketch pads, models, and microscopes. I focus on AI extenders as ambiance : so thoroughly embedded into things and spaces that they fade from view and become part of a subject’s taken-for-granted background. Using dementia care as a case study, I argue that ambient AI extenders are promising because they afford richer and more durable forms of multidimensional integration than do old-school extenders like Otto’s notebook. They can be tailored, in fine-grained ways along multiple timescales, to a user’s particular needs, values, and preferences—and crucially, they can do much of this self-optimizing on their own. I discuss why this is so, why it matters, and its potential impact on affect and agency. I conclude with some worries in need of further discussion.