From Ethics to Governance: Making AI Accountable in Aging and Care
M. Chrostowski (Convenor). PARTICIPANTS: A. Mihailidis (Canada), J. Boger (Canada), S. McKay (Canada), M. Chrostowski (Canada).
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AbstractISSUE: As AI becomes embedded in care for older adults, the gap between ethical principles and operational accountability widens. Attempts at governance can struggle with distributed responsibility across complex sociotechnical ecosystems, exclusion of older adults from technology development, and implementing oversight in decentralized care environments. This symposium addresses: (1) establishing accountability across fragmented stakeholder networks; (2) authentically incorporating age-related values when validated data and inclusive practices are scarce; and (3) implementing oversight and governance in decentralized care settings. CONTENT: Mihailidis (Canada) will present on accountability as distributed responsibility across the AgeTech ecosystem, drawing on research in social robots, monitoring systems, and health assessment tools. This will include discussion of how innovation ecosystems prioritize speed over responsibility, creating accountability gaps, and proposes relational governance approaches embedding accountability into research design, funding, and partnerships. Boger (Canada) will address incorporating age-related values into AI through case studies in ambient monitoring, virtual reality exergames, and dementia workplace support. The presentation will examine how excluding older adults creates gaps between AI training data and authentic contexts, arguing for digital literacy, equitable access, and systemic culture change including humanities perspectives. McKay (Canada) will explore differential oversight requirements in care setting with an emphasis on home-based care, where AI operates in decentralized environments. The presentation will position governance as safeguard and enabler, using contemporary examples from home care, including predictive analytics for hospital readmission risk and AI-enabled scheduling systems. Following the presentations, a panel discussion moderated by Chrostowski (Canada) will explore pathways forward for advancing AI accountability in aging and care, synthesizing insights across ecosystem-level responsibility, values-driven design, and operational governance to identify concrete next steps for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers. CONCLUSIONS/ANTICIPATED OUTCOMES This symposium illuminates critical tensions between AI's promise and its accountable implementation in aging contexts. By examining accountability across ecosystem, design, and operational levels, the presenters will capture why current approaches fall short and what fundamental shifts are needed. This framing provided points to needed research in governance mechanisms, inclusive design methodologies, and context-sensitive oversight modelsKeywords: AI accountability, AI governance, values-based design, care ecosystems
M. Chrostowski (Convenor). PARTICIPANTS: A. Mihailidis (Canada), J. Boger (Canada), S. McKay (Canada), M. Chrostowski (Canada). (2026). From Ethics to Governance: Making AI Accountable in Aging and Care. Gerontechnology, 25(2), 1-10
https://doi.org/10.4017/gt.2026.25.2.1663.3