(Old) age in the age of artificial intelligence – crossing generational borders in AI research and development

Abstract: In the last few years, we have witnessed a surge in scholarly interest and scientific evidence of how algorithms can produce discriminatory outcomes, especially with regard to gender and race. However, the scholarly debate of fairness and bias in artificial intelligence (AI) has paid insufficient attention to the category of age (within the life-course perspective) and older persons as a socio-demographic group. Ageing populations have been largely neglected during the turn to digitality and AI and older persons were identified as potential “vulnerable data subjects” at higher rate of exclusion (Malgieri and Niklas, 2020). Ethical AI needs to cross the generational boarders that are currently ruling in both, the AI research and development of AI products and services. Perspectives of all demographic groups are fundamental to creating desirable AI for the future and older persons should not constitute yet another “dislocated community” in AI ethics. In this presentation, the concept of “AI ageism” is introduced to make a theoretical contribution to how the understanding of inclusion and exclusion within the field of data-driven technologies can be expanded to include the category of age. “AI ageism” can be defined as practices and ideologies operating within the field of AI which exclude, discriminate or neglect the interests, experiences, and needs of older populations and can be manifested in five interconnected forms: (1) age biases in algorithms and datasets (technical level), (2) age stereotypes, prejudices and ideologies of actors in AI (individual level), (3) invisibility of old age in discourses on AI (discourse level), (4) discriminatory effects of use of AI technology on different age groups (group level), (5) exclusion as users of AI technology, services, and products (user level). Additionally, the paper provides empirical illustrations of the way ageism operates in these five forms.

Author bio: Justyna Stypińska completed her PhD on the topic of “Age discrimination in the labour market. A sociological-legal analysis”. Her research focuses on multiple forms of age discrimination and age inequalities in contemporary societies, especially in their most recent digital forms of late capitalism. In her newest project, starting beginning of 2023 and funded by the Volkswagen Foundation Germany “AI Ageism: new forms of age discrimination and exclusion in the era of algorithms and artificial intelligence” she will analyse with an international team (UK, Spain, Poland) the effects of use of artificial intelligence technology on the ageing populations in Europe.

Recorded Presentation | 28 April 2023

#IntergenerationalPerspectives #SeniorCitizens