When Memory Fails Us
Thankfully AI Is Building Our Backup
I had one of those experiences today that makes me crazy. I wish I could say it hardly ever happens, but that’s not true. It happens all the time.
I was sitting in a meeting with the CEO and past Board President of a local Assisted Living and Memory Care community. We were deep in conversation about aging, AgeTech, challenges and opportunities in the space, and how organizations like theirs fit into the ecosystem.
And then it happened. Five separate times, I couldn't recall someone's name, and five more times, I struggled to find the exact word I was looking for. These weren't obscure references – they’re people I know well and topics where I have experience and deep expertise.
I apologized, and sheepishly referenced, with a grimace on my face, “perimenopause brain fog." Both women nodded sympathetically. It seemed they could relate. As we continued talking, those forgotten names and words would suddenly pop into my head, right after the moment had passed and the conversation had moved on.
The irony of experiencing memory lapses while sitting in a memory care facility wasn't lost on me. It was both comical, and unnerving. At least it felt like a safe space to talk about it. 🤷🏼♀️
The Memory Problem We're All Facing
This isn't just my problem. It's not just a women-in-perimenopause problem either (though research confirms we experience it acutely). Approximately 40% of people aged 65+ experience age-related memory loss, according to the National Institute on Aging.
For years, I've described tools like Evernote and Notion as ways to "externalize my brain." When I mentioned this recently to a colleague, she sheepishly admitted to wishing she had the same sort of resource (and could I help her set it up?). We both took a moment to praise our AI notetakers for the invaluable assistance they provide in helping us remember, and agreed about how embarrassing it is when we forget people’s names, especially when they’re people we know well. 🤦🏼♀️
But here's the challenge: Notion, Evernote, AI-generated notes, CRMs, Google Drive, documents, spreadsheets, calendar invites, photo libraries – they're all disconnected islands of memory. There's no unified system that ties them together into a cohesive memory bank we can easily access via a single interface.
AI Memory: The Solution We Didn't Know We Needed
I’m so delighted that startups have entered the space. One’s like Memorious that’s in early stages at Harvard, products like Limitless.ai’s pendant, and work being done at MIT Media Lab's Designing Systems for Cognitive Augmentation.
Memorious, has a compelling pitch: "Human memory fades. We are building AI that persists human memory." Their system automatically extracts memories from your digital life – emails, chats, Notion, calls – and makes them available when needed.
Unlike Google, which requires you to remember what to search for, or conventional AI, which generates responses without true memory, Memorious creates a context-aware memory system that works more like the human brain – but without the forgetting part. 🦾
✨The magic is threefold:
It aggregates knowledge across all your digital sources and time
It extracts human-like memories by connecting dots across conversations and time
It makes those connected dots – those memories – available through both search and real-time ambient suggestions
That last part is particularly exciting; their app can resurface contextually relevant memories automatically. Imagine walking into a meeting and having your AI whisper, "The last time you met with Sarah, you discussed the Q3 marketing strategy and she mentioned her daughter just started college at UCLA."
I'm also intrigued by Limitless.ai's pendant that records conversations wherever you are, since, thankfully, much of my life happens outside of the context of virtual meetings! But I would love to have notes for a lot of those offline activities too, like that restaurant a friend was telling me about, or where I saw that cool piece of artwork. While I expect the UI will evolve – I could certainly imagine it becoming a feature of smart glasses in the next couple of years – the core functionality addresses a deep, fundamental human need.
A Steve Jobs Problem 🍏
This is what I'd call a Steve Jobs problem. Forgetting is embarrassing, discouraging, sometimes downright scary, and a total pain in the ass. The market might not realize that many of us want or need these solutions yet, but once people like me, who are sick and tired of forgetting names get a taste of them, I have no doubt many more will be clamoring for similar products and solutions. Seeing what’s possible is intoxicating. I'm already 100% in that camp now that I know these products exist.
The work being done at MIT Media Lab's Designing Systems for Cognitive Augmentation research group confirms that this is a real and emerging space and not just a product in search of an audience. There’s a whole group at the Media Lab devoted to it, and the research they’re doing at Lasell Village to test innovative cognitive support systems – that they’re blessedly co-designing with users – is testing to rave reviews.
Beyond Convenience: Personal Identity and Connection
This goes deeper than just convenience though. Our memories shape who we are. They contain our professional knowledge, our relationships, our identity. As we age and those memories become less reliable, there's a profound sense of loss.
For those with early stage dementia, the challenge is even more acute. Memory technologies could help patients live better by automatically assisting their recall. These tools could help people continue to engage in social interactions without being at a loss for words, names, dates, or locations.
For all of us, these tools could help retain meaningful memories of loved ones no longer with us, creating digital legacies that can be passed down through generations.
The Next Memory Revolution
We've already built machines that can store, retrieve, and generate knowledge. But until now, we haven't built a machine that can remember and recall information the way humans do – contextually, associatively, and proactively.
That's what makes this technology feel magical. Not having to remember what to search for. Not having to remember when to look for something. Just having the right memory surface at the right moment, as if your brain were functioning perfectly.
For anyone who's ever experienced the frustration of forgetting something important, the embarrassment of blanking on a name, or the fear of losing cherished memories – this technology represents something profound: the possibility of remembering everything that matters, forever. A perfect, infinite, limitless memory backup.
I don't know if Memorious or Limitless.ai will become the dominant players in this space. But I am certain that AI memory augmentation will become as essential to our daily lives as smartphones.
And that's something I don't want to forget.
Have you experienced memory challenges? What tools do you use to help? Drop me a comment – I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Thanks for reading! Subscribe to receive new posts if you like what you read. If you want to show your support, please react ❤️ comment 💬 or repost 🔁 . It’s an easy (& free!) way to be an ally and show support.