Ageism in AI: new forms of age discrimination in the era of algorithms and artificial intelligence

Abstract

Scholars in fairness and ethics in AI have successfully and critically identified discriminatory outcomes pertaining to the social categories of gender and race. The salient scrutiny of fairness, important for the debate of AI for social good, has nonetheless paid insufficient attention to the critical category of age. The aging population has been largely neglected during the turn to digitality and AI. Ageism in AI can be manifested in five interconnected forms: (1) age biases in algorithms and datasets, (2) age stereotypes, prejudices and ideologies of actors in AI, (3) invisibility of old age in discourses on AI, (4) discriminatory effects of use of AI technology on different age groups, (5) exclusion as users of AI technology, services and products. Furthermore, the paper provides illustrations of these forms of ageism in AI.