Older people should be treated as rights-holders and active participants in the development and use of artificial intelligence (AI), rather than passive beneficiaries of technology or care, experts said at an international forum in Seoul on Wednesday. The forum, co-hosted by the ASEM Global Ageing Center, the National Human Rights Commission of Korea and the Korea office of Germany’s Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, brought together experts from international organizations, academia, civil society and government to discuss the opportunities and risks AI presents for ageing societies. Speakers said AI can help older people live independently, maintain social connections and access information and services but warned that the rapid spread of automated AI systems could also intensify age-based discrimination, digital exclusion, privacy risks and threats to individual autonomy. “AI is already changing health care and care, communication, employment, banking, public services and access to information,” Zvezdan Pirtosek, the U.N. Independent Expert on the Enjoyment of All Human
