Good morning future-focused leaders.

ChatGPT can now remember your preferences, past chats, and context; this update makes the tool more useful, consistent, and personal across conversations (and you don’t need to repeat yourselves all the time!) Also this week: wearable robotics are entering real-world use, and AI is being discussed as a solution to global ageing trends.

(Also, a quick note: a sector lead asked whether it’s okay to forward this newsletter to her network. Absolutely. If you find these updates practical or thought-provoking, feel free to pass them on to your provider networks. The goal is to support informed conversations across the sector.)

What else we cover this week:

• ChatGPT has been given a memory update 

• Wearable robotics may support aged care workers and older people

• Ageing, AI, and ethical questions we can’t automate

• The UK Government puts AI training in aged care leadership

• AI workshop in Adelaide: Learn and Lead with AI

• And more...

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READY TO USE TODAY 

🧠 ChatGPT can now remember your conversations

In brief: OpenAI has enhanced ChatGPT with automatic memory, allowing it to remember user preferences and interactions across conversations—making the AI assistant far more personalised and consistent.

The details:

• ChatGPT now automatically remembers your background, preferences, and past chats.

• You no longer need to ask it to “remember” things—it does that on its own.

• This helps ChatGPT tailor responses to you more personally.

• To view or change what it remembers, just ask in the chat.

Why it matters: This update is important for frequent users tired of repeating the same info. With extended memory, ChatGPT will be able to make interactions more personalised and useful over time.

Privacy reminder: You can turn off memory in settings or switch to temporary chat if you'd prefer not to have something remembered.

ON THE HORIZON

🦿 Wearable robotics will soon support aged care workers and older adults

In brief: Two new wearable robotics—one commercially available for a little more than a grand, one still in prototype—are paving the way for safer mobility and physical support in aged care.

The details:

• The Hypershell X exoskeleton, designed for hikers, is now commercially available.

• This lightweight device adjusts dynamically, reducing effort during walking or climbing.

• While currently marketed for outdoor recreation, its application in aged care could include reducing strain on carers or enhancing mobility for older adults.

• Meanwhile in Thailand, researchers at Chulalongkorn University have developed a hybrid wheelchair-exoskeleton.

• This prototype allows users to transition between sitting and walking, using motorised support at the hip and knee joints.

• Clinical trials are underway for improved versions with enhanced stability across movements.

Why it matters: As wearable robotics move from lab to real-world use, they offer promising benefits for aged care. Such tools could help prevent injury or physical strain among care workers and promote greater independence for older adults. With costs likely to fall and designs becoming more user-friendly, aged care homes, rehabilitation services, and home support programs may soon adopt them widely.

THE FUTURE OF AGED CARE

🧓 Ageing, AI, and the ethics we can’t automate

In brief: This week I came across a thought-provoking article by Geoff Cubbit in Law & Liberty, which explores how artificial intelligence could respond to the global ageing crisis. The piece focuses on demographic realities—particularly declining fertility rates—and proposes that AI may become a necessary tool in a world with fewer carers.

The main points:

• Cubitt outlines how ageing populations and falling birth rates are straining traditional models of care and productivity.

• He suggests that AI, unlike immigration or policy incentives, may provide the only scalable response to the shrinking labour force.

• I agree with his concern that AI might reinforce passivity or loneliness. For example, social support tools that simulate emotional presence can’t replace the richness of real human connection. On that note, I recently wrote on LinkedIn about robots in aged care. 

• The author also suggests we’re at risk of outsourcing moral judgement to algorithms. This is a crucial point. In my view, the moment AI decisions become invisible or automatic in aged care is when oversight and ethics must be most vigilant.

Why it matters: As we design future aged care systems, we need more than technical safeguards—we need philosophical clarity. As policymakers and providers prepare for a radically older population, decisions made now will shape what care looks like in 10, 20, even 50 years. And the question needs to not only be what AI can do in aged care, but what it ought to do.

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🇬🇧 AI training for UK care leaders – The UK’s Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Wes Streeting has unveiled a new digital qualification for social care leaders. Developed with NHS and tech partners, this course is designed to boost digital confidence and leadership among care managers. It’s part of a broader push to modernise the UK’s social care system, starting with its leadership.

👨‍🦲 AI flags dementia risk in First Nations Elders – A new study led by UC Irvine shows machine learning can accurately predict two-year dementia risk among American Indian/Alaska Native adults aged 65+. Using health record data, the models identified shared and novel risk factors, offering a pathway to earlier intervention in under-resourced care settings.

📈 AI reshapes long-term care costs – The long-term care industry faces rising demand and personal costs. Startup Waterlily is using predictive AI to help families plan decades ahead, modelling care needs based on daily living activities. The goal: shift from reactive to proactive planning, and empower users with data-driven, personalised insights.

^COMMUNITY

IN-PERSON WORKSHOP

🚀 Learn and Lead with AI

For those of you based in Adelaide, there is another hands-on AI session for aged care professionals, this one taking place in May. This (very) practical session is designed for managers and coordinators in aged care who want to understand how AI can support daily operations. 

At the time of sending out this newsletter, there are still a few spots left.

📍 Thursday 15 May 2025 – Unley Oval Community Hub (25 Trimmer Terrace, Unley SA)
🎟️ Register now

This event is a collaboration between Hills Positive Ageing Project (Adelaide Hills Council), together with the Southern Services Reform Group (City of Onkaparinga) and Multicultural Communities Council of South Australia.