Research stream: Social Structures
Author: Ilia Marcev, PhD Candidate at the Department of Psychology, Maynooth University, and a Research Assistant with the ALL Institute’s SHAPES Project
Unless your internet connection has been as unreliable as the weather forecast, or you were marooned on a desert island over the past few weeks, there is a strong chance you heard of the alleged “alien” bodies discovered in Mexico recently. While this strange discovery made international news, it drew very poor engagement and attention from the average UFO-enthusiast, let alone the average person like you and me. I believe it is fair to say that ten years ago this story would have exploded like a supernova across the internet, but today, the majority of people seem rather unconcerned with this novel development in humanity’s timeline. I can only speculate that the reason the world is unconcerned with potentially discovering our Martian neighbours is because, as exciting as alien intelligent life may sound, we are likely far closer to discovering new intelligent life here on Earth that would rival our own. This new intelligence is better known as – Artificial Intelligence (A.I.).
Currently, there is a frenzy among technological giants and nations to utilise A.I. to improve the quality of life and well-being of Earthlings, as well as to incorporate these machine brains into as many aspects of daily routine as possible. Modern media has portrayed A.I. in rather polarising renditions of either global-annihilation-obsessed terrors or megalomaniacal puppeteers, determined to enslave humans. In contrast to this, in the world of health, new technologies have, and continue to emerge, which add benefit to our lives. From a healthy ageing perspective, A.I. holds exciting potential in assisting health professionals and experts to track patients’ health, use predictive tools to anticipate health decline, and make more informed decisions regarding treatment for older adults. Already, the commercial use of integrated wearable smart devices such as watches, bracelets, and pedometers are proving to be of benefit to many individuals trying to empower themselves by managing and monitoring their own health. You need only peruse the work being conducted in the Smart and Healthy Ageing Through People Engaging in Supportive Systems (SHAPES) project here at the ALL Institute to understand that the atmosphere around A.I. tools in healthcare is growing ever more positive.
Whether this global shift towards incorporating A.I. into healthcare systems is “natural” is up for debate, but the evidence suggests that this step may be a necessary one. It is predicted that if population growth continues in its current upward trend, people continue to live to older ages, and if rates of new medical professionals remain as they are, the world will require 5 million more doctors than will be available. This means that while demand for healthcare will increase in the next few years, the number of healthcare professionals available will be far below what is needed. Whether this means that the quality of healthcare delivered will decline is yet unknown, but it is quite possible. However, it is clear that a drastic intervention is needed across society to avoid future calamities in health systems that, on a global scale, could pose quite damaging for hundreds of thousands if not millions of people. Through its ability to analyse and manage vast amounts of health data that a medical professional simply cannot, A.I. may very well be the hero that saves the day.
That being said, one must heed the warnings given by modern media in their depiction of rogue technologies doing more damage than good. The tortoise beats the hare in the big race, which is a metaphor that technology companies ought to consider in their quest for A.I. glory. The most important things to consider during the development and implementation of A.I. tools in healthcare are ethics and responsible governance. Whether used as a research tool to identify clinical best practices, a health data analyser to be used for the massive screening of physiological and cognitive decline in older adults, or as a mode of delivering social support to older adults using chatbots or voice imitation, the target audience of this intervention must be respected. Older adults are people too, whose autonomy, privacy, and right to give informed consent must be recognised before the mass implementation of A.I. into the world of health.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has written ethical principles for the use of A.I. in health settings which recommend that A.I. must: protect service-user autonomy, promote human well-being, ensure transparency and explain-ability of A.I tools, promote responsibility, strive for equity and equality, and develop sustainable and responsible A.I. In essence, give patients, especially older adults, the necessary control over their lives and their own healthcare. In particular, guarantee that older adults have the same level of privacy and control over their data that would be in place in human-to-human interactions. Protect their well-being through building tools that have their best interests at heart. Make sure that, while technology advances, people’s knowledge of and trust in A.I. grows too. Ensure that accessible and clear information is available to the public and their healthcare providers on the inner workings of these tools. Incorporate a “human warranty”, where the technology and its outcomes are evaluated and supervised by humans, and not other algorithmic tools. Appropriate measures should be put in place to hold humans accountable for failures in the A.I. system of delivery, as is the case in the current real world with the issue of medical malpractice. Finally, aim to adapt A.I. tools for older adults across a wide range of diversity. The benefits of A.I. cannot be solely limited to people of certain races, genders, ethnicities, or abilities. A.I. should not hold the prejudices and biases that many humans do, for if that were to be the case, there would be no real global need for the A.I.
It is easy to become afraid of the negative potential of A.I, or any tool for that matter. However, I believe there is more reason to fear human irresponsibility. By upholding ethical standards and building these tools from a compassionate perspective, we can help create a healthier future for older adults while enhancing their independence and quality of life. In the big race towards technological advancement in healthcare, sometimes the tortoise – the one who trudges cautiously – beats the hare.
The SHAPES project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 857159.