Ageist biases need to be eliminated if artificial intelligence (AI) is to improve the lives of older people, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.
The health body issued the warning in a policy brief published on February 9.
According to the brief, AI can predict health risks and events, enable drug development and support the personalisation of care management.
However, if left unchecked, the WHO fears that AI technologies may perpetuate existing ageism and undermine the quality of health and social care that older people receive.
The brief highlighted how AI systems rely on large historical datasets that can reflect existing biases in healthcare setting where ageism is widespread.
Doctor Vania de la Fuente Nunez, of the WHO’s Healthy Ageing unit, highlighted practices during the COVID-19 pandemic where a patient’s age determined whether they could access oxygen or a bed in crowded intensive care.
Alana Officer, Unit Head, Demographic Change and Healthy Ageing, WHO, said:
“The implicit and explicit biases of society, including around age, are often replicated in AI technologies.
“To ensure that AI technologies play a beneficial role, ageism must be identified and eliminated from their design, development, use and evaluation. This new policy brief shows how.”
The document contains eight considerations to address these concerns and ensure that older people are fully involved in the development of the technology:
- Participatory design of AI technologies by and with older people
- Age-diverse data science teams
- Age-inclusive data collection
- Investments in digital infrastructure and digital literacy for older people and their health-care providers and caregivers
- Rights of older people to consent and contest
- Governance frameworks and regulations to empower and work with older people
- Increased research to understand new uses of AI and how to avoid bias
- Robust ethics processes in the development and application of AI
The policy brief aligns with the messages of the Global report on ageism which serves as the basis for the Global Campaign to Combat Ageism.