Chaiwoo Lee Presents on AI and Longevity for UN Panel

AgeLab Research Scientist Chaiwoo Lee participated in a United Nations panel discussion titled “Bridging the Intergenerational Equity Gap: Discussing Inequality in AI Access, Use and Benefits.” The event was organized by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) Programmes on Youth and Ageing and took place as part of the 63rd session of the Commission for Social Development. The discussion was moderated by UN Human Rights Officer Li Zhou. Other panel members were Abi Yumeng Liu of DESA’s Programme on Youth Unit; Julia Viola, Founder of Cody Health Ventures; and Osa Omokaro, Founder and Co-chair of Tech Runway Africa.

Lee presented findings from a two-part AgeLab survey conducted in 2020 that surveyed 911 consumers and 25 experts on their perceptions of AI’s potential benefits and risks as well as their confidence in and acceptance of AI technologies. Findings from the study revealed that the public generally demonstrated moderately high confidence in AI and held the belief that AI is likely to be beneficial. Consumers envisioned AI being used in a variety of ways such as making financial services more accessible, helping older adults manage challenging life transitions, and automating administrative tasks in the workplace. Experts had high confidence in AI but were open to AI having a more “human” interface to make interaction more natural.

Despite showing openness to AI, however, the survey sample also showed hesitation toward AI technologies; consumers generally rated their own level of knowledge of AI to low and believed developing and implementing AI to be somewhat risky. Experts made recommendations for what policies could be enacted to ease these hesitations. Some of the most common responses were educating the workforce about possible risks of AI and making ethics review boards mandatory at any company or organization developing or implementing AI.

Lee also presented findings from a 2025 AgeLab study that surveyed family caregivers about their experiences with and attitudes toward AI, connecting with the public’s belief that AI can be used to support medical professionals and family caregivers. The study found that caregivers had high confidence in AI for some caregiving tasks such as information-seeking and care coordination; even for tasks rated lower on confidence in AI such social engagement, a majority of caregivers said they would be open to the possibility of being supported by AI.

Looking to the future, Lee highlighted challenges regarding the design of AI technologies: Consumers expressed a desire for “natural” or humanlike AI interfaces, but what’s considered natural may vary across age groups or other demographic factors. AI development also needs to acknowledge heterogeneity within populations (e.g., older adults) instead of treating them as uniform groups. Lastly, Lee also emphasized the importance of responsible and accurate reporting of what constitutes AI in order to minimize confusion among the public and for the continued investigation of what demographic groups may be placing too much or too little confidence in AI technologies.

Watch the full event recording here.