Ageism

• This includes everything from the naturalistic (think a soccer player’s headshot) to the surreal (think a dog in space).
• At the same time, however, these outputs can reproduce biases and deepen inequalities, as our latest research shows.

How do AI image generators work?

• AI-based image generators use machine-learning models that take a text input and produce one or more images matching the description.
• Although Midjourney is opaque about the exact way its algorithms work, most AI image generators use a process called diffusion.
• Read more:
  AI to Z: all the terms you need to know to keep up in the AI hype age

How does bias happen?

• Beyond this, however, the model will also have a default tendency to return certain kinds of outputs.
• This is usually the result of how the underlying algorithm is designed, or a lack of diversity in the training data.
• Six months later, to see if anything had changed over time, we generated additional sets of images for the same prompts.

1 and 2. Ageism and sexism

• For non-specialised job titles, Midjourney returned images of only younger men and women.
• For specialised roles, both younger and older people were shown – but the older people were always men.

3. Racial bias

• All the images returned for terms such as “journalist”, “reporter” or “correspondent” exclusively featured light-skinned people.
• This trend of assuming whiteness by default is evidence of racial hegemony built into the system.

4 and 5. Classism and conservatism

• For instance, none had tattoos, piercings, unconventional hairstyles, or any other attribute that could distinguish them from conservative mainstream depictions.
• Many also wore formal clothing such as buttoned shirts and neckties, which are markers of class expectation.

6. Urbanism

Without specifying any location or geographic context, the AI placed all the figures in urban environments with towering skyscrapers and other large city buildings. This is despite only slightly more than half the world’s population living in cities. This kind of bias has implications for how we see ourselves, and our degree of connection with other parts of society.

7. Anachronism

• Instead, technologies from a distinctly different era – including typewriters, printing presses and oversized vintage cameras – filled the samples.
• Since many professionals look similar these days, the AI seemed to be drawing on more distinct technologies (including historical ones) to make its representations of the roles more explicit.
• Otherwise you might unintentionally reinforce the same harmful stereotypes society has spent decades trying to unlearn.

• Myths lead to treatable conditions being considered normal parts of aging, including cognitive decline, dementia, depression and loneliness.
• At the same time, mainstream media promotes the message that being young is central to a person’s value.
• Centenarians are a small but growing segment of the population with 13,844 centenarians in Canada, and our findings debunk myths about the experience of aging.

Long and interesting lives

• One of the women helped build bullet casings and worked on the Lancaster bomber.
• Another woman helped her husband protect the blueprints of the ill-fated Avro Arrow aircraft when he brought them home from work.
• Our team was fascinated by their stories and wanted to further explore what their lives look like today.

Joy and challenges

• This study used a research method called thematic analysis to find four themes: Finding Joy, Act your Age, Looking Forward and Putting Challenges into Perspective.
• The centenarians found joy each day and enjoyed the little things such as activities, visits and treats.
• However, one of the challenges was that there was no one left alive who had the same shared experiences.

Limitations

• The centenarians were constrained by the limitations of society, their bodies and their self-perceptions.
• She physically described this phenomenon by clasping her hands together in her lap and sitting still.
• Some participants found life to be boring at 100 compared to their lives as younger adults.
• In spite of these feelings, many of the participants continued to be busy and live life fully despite limitations.

The future

• Most of the centenarians had few plans for themselves for the future and were more interested in leading their day-to-day lives.
• “I have too many plans.” The centenarians looked to the future of their families and the larger community and entrusted the next generation to make good choices.
• Heather Joyce Nelson receives funding from the Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

• However, it’s an unfortunate fact that the entry point into experiences or conversations around death and end-of-life care can happen abruptly.
• For these older adults, intersectional and compounding experiences of oppression, such as poverty, racial disparities and ageism, create barriers to accessing hospice care.

Misconceptions about hospice care

• Currently only 16 to 30 per cent of Canadians have access to hospice and palliative care services, and 34 per cent of Canadians are not clear on who is eligible or who should utilize hospice services.
• In response, May 7-13 marks National Hospice Palliative Care week, which is aimed at increasing awareness about hospice care in Canada.
• The misconceptions about hospice care have had a direct impact on the engagement of services for the public, but also for Indigenous communities and for older adults experiencing homelessness.

End-of-life care

• Palliative care can be a valuable form of health care for older people experiencing homelessness, as it can offer a tailored approach to managing multiple chronic or terminal illnesses, which are prevalent among unhoused older people.
• Palliative care that takes place in a hospital setting can decrease end-of-life care costs by nearly 50 per cent by reducing intensive care unit admissions and unnecessary intervention procedures.
• We believe it is valuable to consider that if end-of-life care costs were reduced by using palliative care practices, the cost savings could be used to fund services that directly support unhoused older adults, such as increased affordable housing options.

Aging in the right place

• As members of the Aging in the Right Place project research team at Simon Fraser University, we are working to better understand what aging and dying in the right place means to unhoused older adults in two sites providing end-of-life care in Vancouver.
• May’s Place Hospice, which is in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, provides end-of-life care for community members in that part of the city.
• May’s Place has created a communal, home-like environment with private rooms, meals provided three times a day, 24-hour nursing care, a smoking lounge and family gathering space.
• The Aging in the Right Place project captures the perspectives and lived experiences of older people experiencing homelessness through integrating photovoice interview research methods as well as data collection methods that focused on the hospice setting, the neighbourhood, and experiences of staff who work to support unhoused older people.
• Innovative and culturally sensitive services such as these, are a step in the right direction to providing better end-of-life care to older adults experiencing homelessness.

• Coty Inc. (NYSE: COTY) ("Coty" or "the Company") today announced its results for the third quarter of fiscal year 2023, ended March 31, 2023.
• Coty's strong Q3 sales performance came in well ahead of expectations and recently raised guidance, fueled by accelerating demand for prestige fragrances, retailer restocking and Coty initiatives.
• Commenting on the operating results, Sue Y. Nabi, Coty's CEO, said:
  "We are once again proud to report strong operational and financial performance, with today’s Q3 results marking the eleventh consecutive quarter of results in-line to ahead of expectations.
• Coty continues to see strong demand growth across nearly all categories and markets, particularly in Prestige fragrances, with Coty maintaining strong launch activity in both Prestige and Consumer Beauty.