In this episode of The Intersect, I sit down with Joanna Peña-Bickley, co-founder and CEO of Vibes AI. We explore where technology meets our most human needs and concerns, and discuss how AI can support brain health to help us age with dignity.
As wearable technology continues to advance, how can we better understand and care for our brains? Joanna and her team want to empower us with tools to understand and care for our brains. In our conversation, we delve into how Vibes AI is using voice analysis to detect early signs of cognitive decline, the connection between our hearing and our cognitive functioning, and an innovative vision for how AI and wearable tech might help us extend not just our lifespan, but our “joy span.”
Topics Covered:
- Why brain health is a critical and often overlooked pillar of wellness
- How Vibes AI is working to identify early signs of cognitive decline by analyzing biomarkers in our voice.
- How hearing loss is connected to cognitive health, and how improving our hearing can lead to positive outcomes for our brains.
- Ways that having a healthy brain can increase not just our “joyspan,” but also our healthspan.
- How our voices have a unique frequency and when we’re “on the same wavelength” as others, it can lead to deeper connections.
About Joanna Peña-Bickley:
Joanna Peña-Bickley is a design engineer known as the mother of Cognitive Experience Design and a leader in Generative AI. Her multidisciplinary work across tech, media, and design for the AI era has led to over 150 products for companies like IBM, Amazon, and NASA.
An advocate for inclusive design and AI ethics, she co-founded neurotechnology company Vibes AI that aims to make brain health and wellness accessible to all. She also launched the AI Design Corps to drive workforce upskilling.
Named one of Fortune's Most Powerful Women, Joanna is working to shape the future of human-centered AI.
Follow Joanna Peña-Bickley on and @joannapenabickley and @joannapenabickley0.
