Training Adults with Mild to Moderate Dementia in ChatGPT: Exploring Best Practices

In the realm of generative AI applications, explicitly focusing on LLM-driven conversational agents, there exists a notable gap in addressing the needs of individuals with disabilities, including those with dementia. This oversight raises concerns regarding equity and accessibility in deploying potentially beneficial assistive technologies. This paper seeks to form best practices for instructing individuals with mild to moderate dementia on integrating assistive technology, in this case ChatGPT 3.5 (a conversational AI), into their daily activities. The research, conducted through remote focus groups and optional individual training sessions, identified three key best practices: 1) implementing conversational learning in groups, 2) facilitating proxy interactions, and 3) providing 1-on-1 guided walkthroughs. These findings not only contribute best practices for instructing individuals with cognitive differences in using emerging text-based LLM-driven conversational agents but also emphasize the potential for inclusive design of AI systems tailored for people with mild to moderate dementia. The study underscores the interest and capability of individuals with dementia to learn and interact with LLM-driven conversational agents, offering insights into incorporating such technology into their lives.