Will AI Help Or Hurt Our Aging Parents?

Artificial intelligence is advancing so rapidly, it can be hard to speculate about its effects on elders. What we can see is that applied to healthcare, it could be very positive. For older adults with multiple chronic conditions, there are different doctors with different perspectives, each a specialist in one thing. For anyone who has experienced what we call “fragmentation” in our healthcare system, you may see that the doctors don’t always communicate with one another. Another benefit would be complete information about every medication, its side effects, warning, and contraindications. Clearly, some aging parents are getting the wrong medication for their individual profiles. Selecting the right ones, now a matter sometimes of hurried decision-making, would be streamlined. We already know that AI has frightening capabilities. Seniors who use the internet can be on it without true regard for the dangers.