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Prof. Alex MIHAILIDIS, Associate Vice President of International Partnerships at the University of Toronto delivered the 19th PAIR Distinguished Lecture titled “The Future of Elder Care: Integrating Large Language Models” on 26 April 2024. The lecture attracted about 100 participants to join in person and captivated an online viewing audience of over 14,100 from different countries and regions to watch the live broadcast on multiple social media platforms, including Bilibili, WeChat, Weibo, YouTube, etc.

The lecture commenced with a welcome speech and speaker introduction by Prof. ZHENG Yongping, Director of the Research Institute for Smart Ageing (RISA), followed by an engaging presentation by Prof. Mihailidis. The content materials used in Prof. Mihailidis’s presentation were generated by ChatGPT, while he added the narrative.
In his presentation, Prof. Mihailidis first played several videos created by artificial intelligence (AI) to introduce what LLM is, how it can support elderly care services, some drawbacks of using LLM, and its future development. He supplemented that LLMs are advanced AI systems capable of understanding and generating human-like texts, as well as visual outputs and models that can respond to or interact with users. Next, Prof. Mihailidis outlined the specific benefits of using LLMs in elderly care, including the support tools and resources they offer to caregivers. He then delved into the ethical considerations and challenges in LLM design, such as privacy concerns, the risk of over-dependence on technology, and the barriers to technology adoption by older adults and their caregivers. To conclude, Prof. Mihailidis emphasised the role of empathetic and emotionally-intuitive AI in enhancing the quality of life for the elderly and supporting the caregiving ecosystem.

Following the presentation was a lively and insightful question-and-answer session moderated by Ir Prof. Zheng. The audience had a fruitful discussion with Prof. Mihailidis. A souvenir was presented by Prof. CHEN Qingyan, Director of PAIR, to thank Prof. Mihailidis for his excellent presentation and support to PAIR.