Around 2020, the golden generation HE Tuber began to gradually retire, and those born in the 1980s entered middle age. The generation born between 1960 and 1970, known as the golden generation, became the backbone of social development and economic growth around 2010. With the rapid growth of China's economy, as well as factors such as environmental improvement, public security optimization, and improvement of public medical standards, Whether it is physical condition or wealth accumulation, the elderly have better conditions than before.

The "2023 China Private Wealth Report" released by China Merchants Bank shows that more than 51% of high-net-worth individuals are 40 years old and above, and more than 90% are 30 years old and above.

As the golden generation ages, its impact on the silver economy is very obvious.

At the 2023 Elderly Expo, many grandparents walked around the exhibition by themselves in wheelchairs and crutches, actively looking for their favorite elderly care and assistance products, instead of blindly relying on younger generations or traditional equipment suppliers.

Needless to say, those born in the 1980s have higher digital literacy than previous generations, and have a proactive awareness of retirement planning. They are also young, have an international perspective, and are very concerned about cutting-edge retirement technology.

The elderly group and its reserves have been transformed into a group of people with demand, understanding and consumption ability for AI products, which has laid the foundation for the upgrade of AI for aging.

So, what practical progress will be made in AI aging-friendly products in 2023?

Let’s talk about the ones that have been implemented first.

First, changes in human-computer interaction:

In meeting the needs of the elderly, traditional AI may still be "intelligent for the sake of intelligence". The diverse and refined functions are difficult for the elderly to master, and the designs, interaction methods and quality of different manufacturers vary. Similarly, it is easy for the elderly to have problems such as inability to use, difficulty in using, difficulty in operating, and potential safety hazards.

A developer from a mobile phone manufacturer told me that during user interviews, one of the biggest problems for elderly users is that when they receive a customer service call, they are prompted to press the XX button. The elderly understand it, but their hand movements are slow and the smartphone touches the phone. The screen is very sensitive, so it is easy to accidentally touch it, resulting in repeated failed operations.

The actual decline in physical functions of the elderly and the lack of targeted adjustments in smart products for aging have led to many elderly users becoming repulsive and unwilling to deal with smart machines.

The large language model has powerful understanding, analysis and interaction capabilities, truly realizing a natural language user interface (LUI, Language as User Interface). It also supports multi-modal recognition and free conversion between videos, pictures, speech and text. It can subversively change the way the elderly interact with smart machines, which is very helpful for non-digital native elderly people to use AI products.

For example, complex steps that originally required manual operation can now be described in a sentence of natural language; prescriptions that originally required typing by hand can be automatically recognized into text by taking a photo, making it easier for the elderly to communicate with doctors and nurses online.

It can be said that the large language model’s mastery of human knowledge, unprecedented understanding and generalization capabilities can effectively bridge the digital divide and allow elderly people who are unfamiliar with smart products to easily overcome difficulties.

In 2023, almost all leading domestic mobile phone manufacturers will upgrade mobile operating systems with large model capabilities. Among them, vivo’s OriginOS 4 particularly emphasizes the new simple mode, elder care and elderly color research and other aging-friendly functions. OPPO's ColorOS 14 has added many new smart integration experiences. For example, when you encounter a problem using the phone, you don't need to look up the solution yourself, you can directly ask the new Xiaobu Assistant. The call transcription function uses large models to automatically extract key information to avoid missing key information. , are very friendly to the elderly group.

In addition to the above C-side scenarios, human-computer interaction supported by large models has also brought changes to the smart elderly care services of the government and public sectors. For example, the smart elderly care in Hexi District of Tianjin is supported by JD.com’s large-scale Yunyanxi model. Through intelligent voice outbound calls, it serves 200,000 elderly people in Hexi District for home care. The platform will make daily calls to inquire about their physical conditions and chat. This greatly reduces the work difficulty of community personnel.

Another application that has already been implemented is the advancement of intelligent health management.

The biggest problem facing the elderly comes from health threats. Traditional smart devices, such as the smart spoon we have reported, use AI algorithms to reduce hand shaking so that Alzheimer's patients can eat independently; smart pill boxes remind elderly patients with chronic diseases to take medicine regularly; or wearable devices, such as Clothing sensors and shoe sensors can timely track the body and travel status of the elderly through data collection and positioning.

Limited by the capabilities of traditional machine learning, it can often only achieve relatively simple health management capabilities, and it is difficult to bring about qualitative changes in improving the health level and quality of life of the elderly.

The large model + health management has also undergone major changes in the past year.

 some barriers to health knowledge and health management for the elderly are reduced. For example, at the Baidu World Conference in 2023, interactive AI medication instructions were launched in response to the country’s call for age-appropriate reform of drug instructions. Users interact with virtual humans in real time to solve the problem of unclear, incomprehensible and font-size problems in traditional paper instructions. Small pain points. You can also set medication time and remind users to take medication on time through message notification or voice.

In terms of hardware, active health management using new wearable devices will become possible in 2023. Wearable devices are no longer passive collectors of data, but medical assistants that actively provide health guidance for the elderly. At the Huawei HDC 2023 Sports and Health themed exchange event, experts from major domestic hospitals and medical academies shared reports on the use of wearable devices using pulse wave PPG signals to screen and manage risks such as atrial fibrillation and sleep disordered breathing syndrome. , cardiovascular disease risk screening, non-invasive hyperglycemia risk assessment, portable and accurate hypertension measurement, emotion recognition and intervention, etc., have played a significant role.

The "three highs" problem of the elderly may be well-known to everyone. There are many wearable devices and professional equipment on the market that can detect them. The gap in emotion detection is particularly expected to be filled in 2023.

A scientist said that the team cooperated with Anhui Feidong Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital and used Huawei bracelets to monitor the emotional problems of hundreds of elderly people. Within a month, they successfully predicted two cases of suicide intention and prevented the elderly from committing suicide. Rural nursing homes generally do not have professional psychological counselors, only nursing and service staff. It is difficult to detect the negative emotions of the elderly in time. The team later distributed more than a hundred bracelets to the elderly in the nursing homes. The elderly responded very well. Think of it as the invisible doctor around you. Questionnaire results also show that using a smart bracelet combined with simple conversations can significantly reduce the depression and anxiety levels of elderly users.

"top-heavy", and large tertiary hospitals bear a very heavy burden of diagnosis and treatment. The efficiency of the elderly in obtaining these medical resources is low. In the end, health management still largely falls on the elderly users themselves. Take the initiative to participate. Through intelligent health management products suitable for aging, real-time monitoring, proactive prevention, and early intervention can increase the elderly's compliance with medical advice on health management and greatly improve the health of the elderly.

If the first two items are "AI assisting the elderly", then technology empowering the elderly also gives them more choices besides "being taken care of".

At an event in 2023, I heard a not-so-grand, but very warm story from a smart agricultural machinery entrepreneur. It is now difficult to force young people to engage in hard, dangerous, low-paying agricultural production. Even people in Africa and Southeast Asia are unwilling to work in the fields. This is human nature. Our driverless tractor kit allows the tractor to run in straight lines and curves in the field. People don’t have to sit in the car in the wind and sun, and can just play with their mobile phones next to them.

Because the aging of the rural labor force has become very serious, our customers may not have received higher education, and they may be very old, already 60 years old, so we must solve the problem of aging-friendly design before a new technology can be truly implemented.

"Then, I was shocked by the learning ability of Chinese farmers. Even a 60-year-old man, his acceptance of technology far exceeded our expectations. If he can use a smartphone well, he can use intelligent production tools well. ".

To sum up, the biggest progress in AI for aging in 2023 is from "AI assisting the elderly" to "AI assisting the elderly" and "AI filial piety for the elderly". Because of the substantial progress in technology, it has gained a broader landing stage.