Grandparents of AI – Thoughts on the future of our aging humanity

It was June 2023, in Madingley Hall at Cambridge. In one of the last classes of that weekend, Jonny our professor asks us to consider a question and discuss it as a group: “Who would you rather be cared for when you’re old, a human or AI?"

My answer has changed since, and that’s what I’m exploring in this text. Here, I would like to propose that we think of AI as a way to prevent the natural human decline and also to reduce the technological gap that elder people inevitably experience.

Aging has a double problem: body decline and tech alienation.

Old age is something I’m often worrying about, not for my own sake, but mostly for others. I witnessed my grandmother's displacement from the village where she was born and lived until the age of 80, to stay with us in a small city flat, where she knew no one and was unsure to venture outside.

It was painful to witness her solitude. Because she couldn’t be left in the village by herself, she was brought to the city, but she ended up being by herself, in the middle of us.

My grandmother couldn’t read or write. Her only distraction was to watch daytime TV. I remember her commenting during winter “How those people wearing bikinis at the beach on TV weren’t cold?!”. I never understood if she was not aware that other countries were living in summer, or even that TV wasn’t necessarily being broadcast live.

Whatever the cause of her comment, it revealed the vast gap between her rural background and the technology of the 1990s.

For better or worse, progress marches on and gets faster by the second. So as I contemplate a future when I’m 80 years old, I anticipate that gap to be so huge that it becomes beyond my comprehension.

My grandmother, like many elders, passed away alone in a care home. She was not surrounded by humans that cared for her when she was at her most vulnerable with love and warmth, staff were just holding her on to an empty existence by providing her with food and basic hygiene.

So in response to Jonny's question, my immediate answer was, "AI. I'd much rather be cared for by AI!" I envisioned an elder version of myself, benefiting from a 24/7 virtual nurse ensuring my well-being, chatting, and alerting my children if necessary. An AI with boundless strength, infinite patience, and the ability to share laughter or listen to my stories and complaints without ever feeling tired or bored.

However, reflecting on my grandmother's experience and imagining my own future, I believe that there are two distinct consequences of aging that will shape our final years: One is the natural human aging process, and the other is the widening of the technological gap, the gap between human understanding and machine capability.

The solution to stop both consequences of aging: Human and machine merging.

My question is, when navigating these challenges, can AI serve as the best caretaker, or could it act both as a preventative force and an ally against the consequences of aging?

Before I explain myself, I caveat that my thinking is stricken with uncertainty.  My thoughts are full of unknowns, as the future is. But I encourage you to think deeply about the questions I’m placing and then draw your own conclusions. What I want is to open different points of view and suggest alternatives to our evolution as human beings.

As we peer into the not-so-distant future, the convergence of human and machine cognition becomes a plausible scenario. This could be the solution to both aspects of aging I mentioned above: The aging of body and mind and the technological gap that increases as we grow old.

Transhumanism has been called the most dangerous idea ever. A philosophy advocating the use of technology to directly modify and enhance human cognition and longevity, it could indeed sound like the end of what it means to be human.

But if being human is to let nature take its course, haven't we been altering the natural course of human existence with every scientific and medical development?

Fighting the normal course of aging is not new. We’ve come a long way since our lifespan was no more than 30 years old. Still, old age is filled with pain and illness.

Our bodies are still degenerating into dementia, lack of muscle mass, osteoporosis, and decline to the point where we can no longer take care of ourselves, but rely on an overtired underpaid nurse, or a future AI, if we’re lucky.

AI to enable the progress of medicine against the natural aging process.

I would like to re-imagine a future where AI transcends mere caretaking and becomes an accelerator of scientific and medical discovery to prevent aging degeneration.

So, let's move beyond pacemakers and hearing aids. Picture nanobots injected into our bloodstream, actively thwarting disease, and degeneration in real time. The possibilities of tissue and organ rejuvenation are expanding, with companies exploring stem cell injections to mend a damaged heart, regenerate an injured spinal cord, or restore eyesight fading from macular degeneration.

In November, Peter Diamantis, founder of the non-profit XPrize Foundation, announced a $101 million prize targeting the mental and physical decline accompanying aging, focusing on cognition, immunity, and muscle function.

This pursuit goes beyond vanity, aiming to alleviate suffering linked to illnesses like dementia, cancer, and mobility loss. It's about empowering older individuals to stay in the workforce as younger generations may struggle to afford their care and maintenance, leading to substantial savings in healthcare.

AI to reduce the human-machine technological gap.

I will now address the second aspect, the issue of the technology gap.

Our relationship with the world considers our ability to comprehend and adapt to the advancing technological landscape. Are we able to understand it and live to its potential? Or are we stuck in the tools of the past that technology has made obsolete? It was hard enough for my grandmother not to understand how TV worked, but at least she could turn on the TV.

Assuming a continuous increase in the speed of progress, our future's technological chasm will dwarf the disparity between my late grandmother and my young self.

And even with the help of medical advances that I mention on my first point, and a sharp 80-year-old brain, education and retraining may only go so far in keeping pace with progress.

In an interview for a BBC documentary, Ilya Sutskever compared the relationship between humans and AI to the relationship between animals and humans. Our lack of understanding about AI’s thinking processes will be as far as it is now between a dog and its owner. Where we will be the dogs of the future, understanding only a very small fraction of the world that surrounds us.

To bridge this understanding gap, we might need to elevate our intelligence to align with that of machines. Neuralink's human trials for a brain-computer interface, enabling patients to control a computer with their thoughts and regain autonomy, signify just the beginning of their mission to unlock human potential.

The potential of these new technologies lies in optimizing our brains and bodies, potentially surpassing our natural capabilities.

In Future Superhuman, Elise Bohan suggests, "We're sleepwalking into deeper immersion with technologies that just are a fundamental part of us now. Becoming more-than-human is the logical next step."

However, acknowledging progress necessitates careful consideration of its risks. Nita Farahany — professor of law and philosophy at Duke Law School — warns about the risks in applications of cutting-edge neurotechnology. I’ll leave you to investigate the many sources and I’d recommend starting with her work.

Conclusion

To finalise my arguments, I don't champion immortality or eternal youth. Instead, I seek a life well-lived and a pain-free death.

I do wish to age healthy, with the wisdom of a 90-year-old, the sharpness of a 30-year-old, and the connectivity of a 15-year-old.

I want to grow old not asking “How those people aren’t cold”. But with a full understanding of the technology around me, inside me.

Thus, the need arises not only to thwart the aging of our bodies but also to augment our cognitive abilities to compete with digital intelligence, which evolves much faster than biological intelligence and could out-evolve us before we notice.

Considering Jonny's question in a new light, my response would be, "When I'm old, I'd rather be cared for by myself, thank you."