Milton Keynes company claims to have ‘diagnosed’ Russia president Putin with a serious health problem

They analysed nearly 2,000 voice segments of Putin's speech to come up with the verdict
Watch more of our videos on Shots! 
and live on Freeview channel 276
Visit Shots! now

A global telecommunications company based on a Bletchley industrial estate claims to have ‘diagnosed’ Russian president Vladimir Putin with Parkinson’s disease.

Experts at Aculab used AI technology to analyse almost 2,000 voice segments of President Putin's speeches, recorded between February 2007 and Spring of this year.

The results clearly indicate a "marked and sudden deterioration” in his condition, it is claimed. They show he exhibited some voice characteristics associated with Parkinson's Disease in the early years, followed by a gradual worsening.

President PutinPresident Putin
President Putin

But they found a “significant increase” in these voice characteristics happened in April 2022.

This has a “high correlation” to Parkinson’s disease and may indicate a sudden neurological deterioration due to Parkinson's or a related neurological disorder, allege the experts.

Their AI system, which has around 80% accuracy, was designed to analyse biometric characteristics in a single sentence of speech and identify patients previously diagnosed with Parkinson's.

The system was tested on over 14,500 people and more than 30,000 audio samples from nine different countries.

Aculab, which is based on Mount Farm, published the results of the Putin test on its website with the headline: ‘AI technology shows sudden change in Putin’s health’. The results were published in May but were only recently brought to the attention of The MK Citizen.

Their team of scientists was led by Dr Ladan Baghai-Ravary, former Research Fellow at the University of Oxford and a specialist in speech technology and AI systems. She is currently Aculab’s Director of Speech Technology and Research and has authored many publications, including a book on Automatic Speech Signal Analysis for Clinical Diagnosis and Assessment of Speech Disorders, and numerous papers in academic journals and conferences.

One source said of the Aculab Putin study: “I believe and hope that if this story breaks it can affect world events to an extent that a solution can be found to shorten the conflict, potentially saving thousands of lives.”

Parkinson's progressively damages parts of the brain over many years. The three main symptoms of are involuntary shaking of particular parts of the body (tremor), slow movement and stiff and inflexible muscles.

Some people experience changes in cognitive function, including problems with attention, memory and the ability to plan and accomplish tasks.