数智时代的中国式养老--数字机遇与算法挑战

Chinese Path To Elderly Care in the Age of Digitization and Intelligence:Digital Opportunities and Algorithmic Challenges

老龄化和数字化正在形成的历史性交汇,拓宽了实现中国式现代化的实践内涵和想象空间。中国是老年人口最多和老龄化速度最快的国家之一,老龄化的发展与生育意愿低迷、家庭小型化和空巢化等人口现象相伴生,并有疆域范畴广和区域差异大等约束条件,城乡养老服务不均衡相对突出,面临的养老压力较为繁重和复杂。中国特有的发展路径和治理模式更对养老这一重大民生问题提出了特定要求,中国式养老作为严肃的学理命题和实践主题由此浮现,并与中国式现代化进程相同步和相协调,具有鲜明的时代特色、族群属性和文化特质。在数字化和智能化时代,数智技术积极赋能基本养老服务体系建设,为协调供需两端的失衡矛盾,助推养老事业的数字化智能化转型升级,促进养老产业高质量发展,带来若干新的机遇。但同时也衍生了新的挑战,老年人遭遇新型“数字鸿沟”而被隔绝于数字红利之外,算法年龄歧视和算法黑箱等伦理失范现象威胁老年人的基本生存状态,加剧不平等和不安全等风险。为此有必要从技术规范、法律规制和价值重塑等方面建立以人为本、人机智能协同的算法治理体系,坚持“算法向善”与积极老龄观相结合,提升老年人的信息能力和算法素养,构建更加包容、安全和有效的数智化养老服务体系,使数智技术成为推动中国式现代化和积极老龄化的重要力量,更好服务于老年人的全面发展。

Population aging and digitalization are converging in a historic intersection,broadening the practical implications and imaginative space for achieving a Chinese-style modernization.China stands as one of the countries with the largest and fastest-growing elderly population.The development of aging is accompanied by phenomena such as declining fertility rates,smaller family sizes,and increased empty-nesting,along with constraints such as broad territorial scope and significant regional disparities.The pronounced imbalance in urban and rural elderly care services results in complex and substantial caregiving pressures.China’s unique development path and governance models further impose specific requirements on elderly care which is an important livelihood issue.Chinese-style elderly care has emerged as a serious academic proposition and practical theme,synchronizing with China’s modernization process.It exhibits distinctive contemporary characteristics,demographic attributes,and cultural traits.In the era of digitalization and intelligence,digital and intelligent technologies actively empower the construction of basic elderly care service systems,which brings forth several new opportunities for addressing the imbalance between supply and demand,facilitating the digital and intelligent transformation and upgrading of elderly care services.However,it also gives rise to new challenges.Elderly people face the risk of being excluded from the digital dividend due to new digital divides,and ethical issues such as algorithmic age discrimination and algorithmic opacity threaten the basic living conditions of the elderly,exacerbating inequality and insecurity risks.Therefore,it is essential to establish a human-centric and man-machine cooperative algorithmic governance system from the perspectives of technical standards,legal regulations and value reshaping.This system should integrate“algorithm for good”principles with a positive aging perspective,enhance elderly people’s information literacy and algorithmic proficiency,and construct a more inclusive,secure and effective elderly care service system of digitalization and intelligence.This approach ensures that digital and intelligent technologies become a significant force in advancing Chinese-style modernization and promoting active aging,thereby better serving the comprehensive development of elderly people.