Type 2 diabetes symptoms: Subtle change to your voice could reveal your risk to new AI programme

Type 2 diabetes symptoms: Subtle change to your voice could reveal your risk to new AI programme Scientists develop artificial intelligence (AI) programme which could screen millions for Type 2 diabetes via a short video recording taken on their smartphone AI can now tell if you have diabetes from a 20-second video of you speaking. Scientists say a short recording of someone’s face as they talk into a smartphone could help diagnose millions with Type 2 diabetes. Nearly five million Brits have a diabetes diagnosis, but around 1.3 million could be at risk of the condition without even knowing it - increasing their risk of amputations, blindness and death. RMIT University in Melbourne in Australia trained an artificial intelligence (AI) programme to detect changes in speech which have been linked to type 2 diabetes, such as increased hoarseness and an inability to control breath. The tool was trained using more than 63,000 voice samples from more than 21,000 people in the UK and US, including 7,000 Brits. Researcher Giedre Cepukaityte, a cognitive neuroscientist at tech company Thymia, which co-developed the programme, said: "This has the potential to change what screening looks like. "A speech sample can be taken over the phone or through an app, so we can reach far more of the people who need a blood test than current pathways do, particularly those who never get to a health check. Our model opens a new route to screening for diabetes.” Researchers tested the model using 20-second recordings of people reading Aesop's fables out loud. The study found that the speech model gave a higher risk score to those who reported having type 2 diabetes 80% of the time. Type 2 diabetes is becoming increasingly common in younger adults and early detection is key to preventing serious complications, such as heart disease and nerve damage. Screening currently involves blood tests or GP appointments. The NHS includes diabetes screening in the health checks it offers to people aged 40-plus every five years. But research has shown that only 40% of people attend the appointments. A second analysis included a sub-group of 801 trial participants who took diabetes blood tests at home within three months of the speech recording. The AI tool gave these people higher risk scores 75% of the time. Ms Cepukaityte, who will be presenting the findings at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) in Milan, added: "This is the largest real-world study of speech-based screening for type 2 diabetes to date which also checks the model's predictions against blood test results as well as against what people reported about their own diagnosis. Those flagged up as higher risk by the model had blood results to match. "It is not a replacement for a blood test, and it should never stop anyone who thinks they need one from getting one. Our next step is to test the model in clinical settings and to understand how well it works for every group of people, because a screening tool has to work for everyone."