Artificial Intelligence Solutions for an Aging Society
Granny’s New Best Friend or Worst Nightmare?
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An aging global population means a greater number and proportion of seniors, and a smaller potential workforce. Over the last few months I’ve been making a list of the promises and perils of applying AI to address the multifaceted challenges of this monumental demographic shift. If something’s missing, please comment below. And read to the end to see the role AI played in what you’re reading…
Takeaway: We have to change the narrative around population aging to focus on how societies adapt, and technology (including AI) is a key adaptation (immigration and longer working lives are other potential adaptations). By leveraging AI technologies, we can improve healthcare, enhance quality of life, and fill gaps in the labor force. There’s tremendous potential, but still significant challenges in research, design, and implementation.
7 Benefits
Personalized Healthcare: AI technologies can pour through enormous amounts of data to support personalized, evidence-based diagnoses and treatments that should optimize health outcomes and give us all—not just today’s seniors—longevity gains. Experiments can happen faster and safer.
Remote Monitoring: AI-powered devices and sensors, like wearable trackers and robots, can continuously monitor seniors' vital signs, detect early warning signs of health issues, and alert healthcare providers or family members in case of emergencies. This real-time monitoring allows for prompt intervention, reduces hospital admissions, and eases the burden on caregivers and health systems.
Cognitive Assistance: AI-driven virtual assistants and robots can provide cognitive support for seniors, helping with daily tasks, reminding them to take medications, and offering companionship. These technologies promote independence and alleviate caregiver burden (again, not just a benefit to seniors).
Predictive Analytics: AI algorithms can analyze vast amounts of healthcare data to predict disease progression and recommend preventive measures. This proactive approach can significantly enhance early diagnosis and intervention. In homes, this can mean the ability to intervene before falls or other emergencies.
Facilitate Independence: AI technologies employed in intelligent homes can automate household tasks like locking doors at night and turning off lights using voice activation.
Social Engagement: AI chatbots and social robots can engage with seniors in conversations, reminiscing, and games to combat loneliness and depression. I mean, how cute is Paro?
Labor Substitute and Efficiency Gains: As long as we collectively continue to prioritize economic growth, a shrinking and aging labor force means we’ll have to do more with less. AI can step in as a substitute for labor in various industries and can improve general worker productivity. AI-driven automation can handle repetitive and physically demanding tasks, allowing human workers to focus on more complex and creative aspects of their jobs.
5 Challenges
Privacy and Ethical Concerns: The more data fed into the models, the better the models. But collecting and analyzing a lot of personal health data raises privacy concerns. I also worry about seniors’ vulnerability to scams (heck, I feel at risk, too), like using computers to replicate the voice of a loved one and gaining access to sensitive financial information.
Accessibility: Ensuring that AI-driven technologies are accessible and user-friendly for elderly individuals who may not be tech-savvy is a significant challenge—“digital ageism.” User interfaces must be designed with seniors in mind. The private sector hasn’t really targeted older persons when they’ve developed these digital technologies, but with 131 million people ages 65-74 in high income countries alone, that’s a lot of potential consumers.
Equity and Affordability: AI-driven healthcare solutions can be expensive, making them inaccessible to low-income seniors. AI could replace some low-paying, low-skilled jobs, displacing workers.
Over-Reliance on AI: Striking the right balance between AI assistance and human care is essential to maintain the emotional well-being of seniors. Research shows that AI technologies work best in tandem with usual care. Social isolation is itself a health risk, as it can lead to cognitive declines; we wouldn’t want AI to make a bad situation worse by replacing human interaction. Intergenerational contact is also crucial for increasing understanding of the needs of different age groups on a societal level.
Data Bias: AI algorithms can perpetuate biases present in the data they are trained on, and since age determines who receives certain treatments or procedures and AI builds on that historical data, it can reproduce that systematic discrimination. Clinical trials often exclude or underrepresent older people in their samples so AI-informed treatment plans may not be a good fit for seniors’ needs.
In sum
Artificial Intelligence offers immense potential in addressing the needs of an aging population, from improving health and quality of life for seniors to improving labor market outcomes by gains in efficiency and substitution. In a world with a shrinking workforce due to an aging population, AI has the potential to play a vital role in sustaining economic growth. However, it is crucial to strike a balance between AI-driven automation and human involvement to ensure that the unique needs and preferences of seniors are met while harnessing the full potential of artificial intelligence to address the multifaceted challenges posed by an aging society.
And…since this was a newsletter on AI, I thought you’d be interested to know that I ran my own experiment. I researched and wrote my own first draft, then asked ChatGPT to put together a draft. Even though I iterated with ChatGPT, it wasn’t able to see the relationship between aging and AI holistically—there was still too much focus specifically on seniors. The thing about population aging is that it affects all aspects of society, political, social, and economic, and all age groups. There’s not a lot published with that holistic view for ChatGPT to draw from so it could only produce a narrow narrative. The robots aren’t coming for my job just yet.
My TED talk on global aging releases October 2nd at 11amET and my 2024 trends analysis will publish around that date via this newsletter. Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss updates.
