As you read this, I'm somewhere over Indonesia, on my way back to Australia after five months living in China. I visited seven cities, attended expos, toured aged care homes, spoke with providers and technologists, and lived daily life in a country that is transforming at a pace that’s hard to convey, and looks almost nothing like the country I first visited back in 2008. The infrastructure, the digital ecosystem, the sheer speed at which things are built, replaced, and upgraded — it reshaped how I think about what's possible when a country decides to commit.

I've written a long piece about what I observed, and while much of it is about aged care, the article goes broader — because you can't understand China's approach to ageing without understanding the environment it sits inside. See below for a preview and the link to the full article.

At this year's Spring Festival Gala — the most viewed show on the planet — the very first comedy sketch featured four humanoid robots caring for a grandmother whose grandson never visits. The audience laughed because it wasn't far-fetched. This is a country where aged care and AI are already part of the same conversation.

Some of what I saw will be familiar to anyone in our sector: workforce shortages, demand outpacing supply, a system under demographic pressure. But their response is quite unique. Provincial governments subsidise aged care providers to adopt AI and robotics at scale. Individuals receive $5k towards smart monitoring and AI assistants in the home — no assessment required, family members can claim it on your behalf. 83% of Chinese respondents view AI as beneficial, nearly double the Australian figure.

And older people are genuinely using technology — I watched people well into their eighties navigate payment apps, book train tickets, and manage daily life through a digital ecosystem that has made cash almost obsolete.

The full article covers all of this, plus what I observed about infrastructure, the health system, and the leaps in technology that make China's pace possible.

Tuesday 10 March, 12–1pm AEDT | Online | Free

Board members, CEOs, and managers have been asking the questions: How do we actually use ChatGPT for documentation? What happens if staff upload resident data? How do we implement AI without triggering compliance issues?

The panel includes:

If you're responsible for AI decisions at your organisation and want practical answers instead of speculation, this session is for you.

Wednesday 11 March, 12–1:30pm AEDT | Online | Free

As Australia's aged care sector continues to evolve, this session will explore how CHSP providers can prepare for technological and demographic shifts while strengthening inclusion and support for culturally diverse communities. This webinar will unpack best practices in planning for cultural diversity, workforce engagement, and technology adoption.

NEW | Wednesday 18 March, 8.30am to 4.30pm local time | In-person | Free

Location: Balcony Tower Room, Clocktower Centre, 750 Mt Alexander Road, Moonee Ponds VIC 3039

If you are in Melbourne and manage or coordinate community aged care services, this session is designed for you.

We will move past theory and focus on practical application. We will work directly with current generative AI tools and learn how to adapt them to your operational context, from internal processes to communication and compliance tasks.

Expect a structured, hands-on day. You will test tools, build simple workflows, and leave with a framework for responsible use in your organisation.

Places are limited and registrations are essential.

Thank you to Jenni Mazaraki from Mooney Valley Connect for organising.

A randomised experiment with 1,174 adults ages 25-45 found that Generative AI substantially reduces productivity differences based on education level. Participants completed a workplace-style business problem-solving task either with or without AI assistance. Without AI, higher-education participants significantly outperformed lower-education participants. With AI access, this performance gap shrank by about 75%—AI provided substantially larger productivity gains for lower-education workers. This shows why AI education is important on an organisational, as well as a national level for Australia.

Jun Takahashi refuses to see ageing as slow retreat. Whilst his peers only talk about "grandkids and sickness," he gets new tattoos, performs on stage, and plans a living funeral ceremony. The short documentary No One Ever Really Dies follows Takahashi as he orchestrates his faux send-off with theatrical flair, though his wife and daughter find it over the top and cruel; they suspect it's his way of confronting death's inevitability.

The tension between provocation and vulnerability drives the film: Does Takahashi thrive on shock value or is there true catharsis? By embracing both the absurd and profound, the film becomes less about death and more about what it means to keep living—fully, unapologetically, and on one's own terms.

Were you looking for a reason to ditch Facebook? Meta (the company behind it) has been granted a patent for training AI on deceased users' posts to keep accounts active indefinitely, simulating their voice in new content, comments, and DMs. The patent stated the system could "simulate the user when the user is absent from the social networking system, for example, when the user takes a long break or if the user is deceased."

You can use Claude Artifacts (with its simple front-end design) to turn anything into an interactive page. You can use this to understand key information of complex documents and discuss with the team. 

The design is impressive, and it takes less than 10 minutes. In the example I turned the full Aged Care Act into an interactive page that explains the basics of the act to frontline workers. In my example, this could be used as an educational tool, and it comes with an embedded quiz at the end. Please do give me feedback on this page if you decide to give it a try.

As part of his continuing research, Professor Watson is offering to facilitate capital asymmetry analysis sessions with aged care providers across Australia. For Melbourne-based organisations, there's no cost. Outside Melbourne, he asks only for travel costs to be covered.

This is a rare chance to work directly with the researcher who developed the framework to assess your competitive position and identify strategic opportunities.

If you missed his interview on capital asymmetry in aged care, access it below. On the same page you may find Professor Watson’s contact details.

QUT researcher Zina Sciacca has asked me to share this opportunity and I think it’s worthwhile, with significant practical value.

Many CALD residents lose their English after dementia, stroke, or cognitive decline, leading to distress, isolation, and care escalation. The Listening Link is a four-week micro-pilot testing real-time AI translation earbuds during routine interactions like meals and personal care. Led by Zina (inspired by her Nonna's stroke-related language loss), it's designed to be used for everyday moments where formal interpretation isn't practical.

Shortlisted for ARIIA support, the project needs one Brisbane residential aged care partner with a strong CALD cohort for a 6–12 month partnership: co-design and planning, then a four-week pilot with potential to scale. Benefits include clearer communication, reduced distress, evaluation data for quality improvement and funding applications, and potential gains in staff retention and family trust.

You can apply via the ARIIA Partnership Opportunities (select Opportunity 2). More details in this PDF and on The Listening Link website.

Each week, I review developments in ageing and aged care and what they mean in practice. If this was useful, forward it to someone in the sector who'd appreciate it.

George Gouzounis