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Short abstract:

The fields of political economy of care and socio-gerontechnology have provided insightful contributions to study ageing and care. Although having similar interests, these two fields provide conflicting perspectives. In this presentation, I will examine this conflict and provide a synthesis.

Long abstract:

Recently, research on the political economy of care has emphasized the importance of the concept of ailment, which highlights the ways in which all human beings are vulnerable and interdependent in different degrees. Although vulnerabilities are shared, they tend to accumulate with ageing. Simultaneously, an emerging branch of research called ‘socio-gerontechnology’ has developed to critically examine the relations between ageing, society, and technology from the perspectives of science and technology studies and ageing studies. Research from this area has criticized the ways in which optimistic political discourses towards new care technologies produce ageing as a problem. When these discourses are enacted in care practices, they often lead to ageist representations of older users. The perspectives to ageing, care, subjectivity and technology in these two influential fields of research differ from one another. Importantly, they take conflicting stances towards ailment and ageism. In this paper, I will examine this conflict. Through this discussion the paper paves the way for further research in the nexus of political economy, ageing, care and technology studies. The proposal is an academic presentation of a theoretical article in the making.

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Short abstract:

This paper seeks to clarify the predominant ideals prescribed in technology through the description of its real usage. Based on empirical investigation of social robot uses in long-term care facilities in France and Japan, the aim is to understand how social robots represent social relationships.

Long abstract:

Addressing the care needs of older adults with cognitive impairment (OACI) is a major challenge in contemporary society. Some argue that technology can play roles in satisfying the socio-psychological needs of OACI. Their presumed goals are to increase both the quality of care for OACI and the working environment of care providers. In this regard, several studies have looked into visions, expectations and purposes in technology, particularly in Science and Technology Studies (STS). However, most research have primarily focused on the reciprocity between humans and technologies, with few empirical investigations taking into account the ethics of care framework and the concept of dependency. This presentation seeks to clarify the predominant ideals prescribed in technology development through the description of its real usage. The study is based on interviews with care professionals as well as technology developers and ethnographic observations of various social robot uses in long-term care facilities in diverse sociocultural situations (France and Japan), in order to understand how social robots prescribe and represent social orderings, including dependency relationships. The research presented here confirms that the configuration of social robots frequently assumes that each actor is autonomous and independent, with little regard for the (inter)dependencies among the various actors in the care setting and the possible effects this may have. The current findings highlight the importance of taking into account a complicated care arrangement with varying (and often invisible) values and interests of numerous subjects, as stressed in the ethics of care.

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Short abstract:

Our research unpacks sexist and ageist stereotypes surrounding the digital realm by revealing how Italian people (try to) explain them. An essentialist matrix surfaces, with ageism being not problematized at all (unlike sexism) due to lack of awareness about age(ing) as a discriminatory device.

Long abstract:

Digital technologies as a field geared towards men and youth (Wajcman 2009; Åsberg & Lykke 2010; Rosales & Fernández-Ardèvol 2019; Svensson 2023) trigger sexist and ageist stereotypes (Neven 2010; Sciannamblo 2017) that are based on broader prejudices and stigmas about women’ and older people’s skills or communication styles (Comunello et al. 2017; Köttl et al 2021). On these grounds, our research attempts to unpack such stereotypes by unveiling how people try to explain them. We conducted 6 online focus groups with Italian women and men from two age cohorts far apart in time (20-30 and 65-75 years old). The stimuli aimed to easily leak the stereotypes that participants had in mind and to spark a collective discussion based on personal interpretations of them (Stewart & Shamdasani 2017). The results unexpectedly reveal an essentialist matrix of sexism and ageism, which may exceed the field of digital technologies. Participants proved to believe that certain social groups (women and the elderly, but also men and young people) are defined by intrinsic properties, without considering external factors (Sayer 1997; Witt 2011; McKeown 2014). Some of them did problematize the sociocultural roots of digital sexism by proposing publicly known discourses about gender as a segregating device; but no one did the same for digital ageism, which emerged as naturalized probably due to a lack of public debate about ageism and awareness about the discriminatory implications of age(ing). These findings suggest a path of intervention to deconstruct ageist stereotypes and tailor inclusive technology for the elderly.

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Long abstract:

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an overarching term that encompasses the ability of machines to imitate human intelligence. It signifies the pinnacle of advancements in the era of information and telecommunications. The potential is as vast as the concerns surrounding it. In the current balance between capital and labor, it is more likely that AI will be used to accelerate our existing tasks, thereby magnifying any systematic errors already present. As described by Carlota Perez, each technological paradigm shift introduces new methods of production, work, transportation, communication, and lifestyle. Each generation perceives itself as the epitome of progress and comfort, while considering previous lifestyles as obsolete and regressive. This theoretical article explores the potential to deploy AI to actively fight against ageism. I begin by exploring what the current developments reveal about AI prospects in the making of old age. This implies acknowledging that not only has capitalist production always involved a separation of knowledge, but also that the mechanization of intelligence has always been a part of labor division. I proceed to delve into the particularities of the current technological revolutions, namely the unprecedented demographic conditions and the fact that the current machine learning models are unique in that they embody human discourse within machinery. Additionally, this article also aims to increase public and scientific awareness of the potential negative impact of continuing to roll out language models in a context of pervasive ageism.

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Long abstract:

This contribution aims to outline and discuss the need for adequate representation of vulnerable populations in the co-creation of Gerontechnologies. The discussion delves into the ethical representation of the heterogeneity in old age and its enactment in co-creative Gerontechnology development. To engage with the critical issues of heterogeneity of old age we further consider intersecting categories such as gender, disability, and ethnic and racial diversity. We would like to debate the scope in which intersectionality, vulnerability, and their situatedness are inextricably linked as well as their impact on the co-creation of an app called “Nebolus”. This app serves as a case study to explore practices of representation, emphasizing the interplay and tensions among processes of inclusion and exclusion. Originally designed to enhance health literacy among younger people, by using a location-based game approach, we find ourselves navigating through the challenges of representation in Gerontechnology development while adapting and re-developing the “Nebolus” app to make it available, usable, and useful for older individuals.

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Long abstract:

Older adults are a key target for the development of technologies that promise to offer solutions for autonomous “healthy aging” in a context of healthcare systems under intense pressure. Developing telehealth applications for older users that may be experiencing cognitive decline has many challenges. In this paper, we examine the development pilot implementation of an application designed for autonomous health monitoring for older adults, including those experiencing neurodegenerative disease and their caregivers. The application entails an interactive health questionnaire and relies on a decisional algorithm to provide a personalized health assessment and recommendations, through which users may discover “problems” related to mobility, cognition, social isolation or nutrition. We examine how aging was scripted into the development of the technology and analyze a series of focus groups and interviews undertaken with older target users. We argue that the rejection of health assessments and the challenge posed to its assumptions about aging reveals a complex interplay between user agency and algorithmic decision-making. Participants’ feedback also brings forth methodological reckonings for future designs and research on technology that aims to engage older users. It also highlights contradictions in the design and innovation process. In discussion with other literature, this case study presents issues of translations and representations found in scripted technology for so-called healthy aging. We discuss some of the sensitivities and suggestions of participants that shed light on the missed opportunities in such innovation.

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Long abstract:

How to co-create good dementia care by the use of AI? This question sits at the heart of the transdisciplinary innovation project QoLEAD (Quality of Life by use of Enabling AI in Dementia) that brings together researchers from different disciplines with care organizations, informal caregivers and people with dementia in an attempt to co-create innovations that may best answer this question. As STS scholars, we are involved in this project to contribute to its responsible innovation, focusing in particular on the different concepts in this question that contain multiple normative domains that are not self-explanatory. Dementia care is a heterogenous field that teems with many, often conflicting, practices and visions of good care against the backdrop of persistent problems, such as a mounting shortage in healthcare personnel. When aiming for a critical understanding of how AI can contribute to desired practices in dementia care, it is therefore crucial to unpack what good care and meaningful AI in dementia mean. To that end, co-creation workshops will be designed in order to enable QoLEAD’s stakeholders to conjointly reflect on the subject matter that brings them together: good dementia care. We will draw on co-creation work, aiming to induce critical reflections of stakeholders on meanings of good dementia care, to open up discussions on several questions: what will good dementia care of the future look like? And what are their beliefs about what impact AI-innovations can have in this context?

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Long abstract:

We have worked with older adults to understand their views on artificial intelligence (AI), particularly AI’s use in assistive technology systems in the ageing space. Our project focussed on three types of AI: generative AI (image and text); speech recognition and diarisation; natural language processing (NLP) of transcripts in order to perform summarisation. We critically explored the range of knowledge, understanding and perspectives about these technologies within this population, characterised by strong suspicion and concerns about privacy and scams. We explored changes in perceptions through engaging with demos of these technologies, co-designing how implementation could bring benefits and foster trust. The issues of bias in the models were explored and challenged, showing how these models currently are not fit-for-purpose for ageing audiences. We co-designed flexible privacy options, to demonstrate what ethical, transparent and informed choice could look like when designing with these technologies. This included co-producing a simple, icon-based information sheet to understand what happens to user data. We will present brief lay summaries to explain the technologies, followed by discussion of our findings from each stage of our exploration. We will then run an AI-facilitated conversation demo to showcase what was highlighted in through our work. We will discuss what we believe from our work with older adults are the important considerations when implementing these technologies with these, and other, populations.