Can AI fix the care “crisis”?

As part of the ESRC’s Festival of Social Science, and The Exchange’s AI FUTURES programme, IMPACT hosted an event exploring whether AI, robotics and digital tech can fix the care “crisis” in the UK and beyond.

Our panel was made up of:

The event started with our panel discussing their experiences with technology. Paula talked about the assistive tech and gadgets she uses daily: alterations to her car, her Amazon Alexa, and Apple Watch.

Emily used three case studies to emphasise the pros and cons:

  1. Monica, in New York, has an AI-driven robot that learns about her likes and interests and helps to make her less lonely. She used to have a care worker, but when travel difficulties meant the care worker could no longer support her, the robot helped to fill that gap.
  2. Hassan, an unpaid carer, prepares a rota for his multi-generational family to ensure care for grandmother. He knows technology could really help him, but Hassan does the work himself because he’s able to persuade relatives, use their background and the texture of family to make decisions – something AI couldn’t do.
  3. From her own lived experience of providing care to her mother, Emily explained some of the challenges of using hospital transport. You get a four-hour window, which can make planning really difficult. Emily emphasised that a tracking tool, similar to those on Uber and similar, would really help, but it would never replace the way a family carer can remove anxiety.

Alex works as a Team Lead at TLC Care. He explored the administration of medicine, and how electronic administration methods can improve transparency.

Henry, whose work focuses on cultural robotics, emphasised that while some people may be concerned by changes, care is really complex. The current shift is around robotics designed for particular activities, like those for entertainment or for therapy purposes.

Where is the comfort zone?

Kate asked our panel what roles they think it’s okay to offload to robots. As tech gets better and better that’s going to be the big question. She also asked where our panelists feel the comfort zone is, what they would be happy and comfortable with.

Emily said that we need to remember tech isn’t disembodied – it affects labour supply chains. There’s also a real impact on the environment, factories and data processing uses a lot of water and energy! She emphasised that technology is often talked about as a method for self-management – home testing and predictive tools can be really beneficial, but if you’re working with complex conditions, and responsible for safety, would you rely on tech?

Paula explained that there are a lot of things she would love a robot to be able to do for her. She said that if people aren’t around to support, there are things she can’t do like her mascara. She also said many gadgets still require you to use your hands.

The ability to personalise is really important – acceptable parameters for one person are different to those for another.

Alex shared that needs can change at any time so is reluctant to become too dependent, but from the admin side (which is increasing for care workers) it can be really helpful.

Henry shared an example of a robot that couldn’t always hear/understand and then carers had to spend time making sure it was working, and not doing anything weird. Care workers can become technology babysitters!

Emily emphasised that there’s a value-split: care work is traditionally “women’s work” and that of the lower classes, so the work is not valued but instead run on metrics and KPIs. Care work is reduced to a set of tick-box tasks, and robots can do that, but the texture of care is lost.

What will help people live good lives, and where do we want to go?

Emily said that where we want to go is irrelevant, as decisions are never made based on this… Instead we need tech to be surrounded by other labour rights: we have to start with a human right to provide care that spills out, before even introducing technology.

Henry asked how you design a robot that can behave in a culturally appropriate way when culture is so different around the world: you can’t introduce a new technology and slot it into the same old world, as care will change in response. We also don’t know what future we’re going to get because the tech alone will create changes.

Kate concluded the event, emphasising that this isn’t an isolated issue – sometimes our homes aren’t right, there isn’t the community support, nothing happens in isolation.