Until a few years ago, the plan to stop and reverse aging was not considered a “real science,” but rather as an inevitable and permanent part of human existence. It was not a disease, but a vulnerability to disease that increases over time and cannot be reversed. People who claimed otherwise were regarded by the medical community as entertaining outsiders at best, disreputable charlatans at worst.

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Suspicion hasn't completely disappeared yet, but there is increasing investment in fighting aging itself and not just in the diseases that occur with age — such as cancer, heart attacks and Alzheimer's. For example, (after years of effort), funding and approval for TAME-Study (Targeting Aging with Metformin) achieved (Metformin is a drug that was approved 60 years ago to treat diabetes).

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The project is a six-year, nationwide series of clinical trials at 14 leading research institutions in the USA involving over 3,000 people aged 65 to 79 years. Led by Dr. Nir Barzilai, these studies are looking at whether those taking metformin are delaying the development or progression of age-related chronic diseases — such as heart disease, cancer, and dementia. The effects on aging are not expected to be massive, but the drug is known to be safe and the project is at least in part an exercise to persuade medical and scientific communities as a whole to take aging itself more seriously.

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AI and aging clocks

One reason for the change in attitudes towards aging is the use of modern artificial intelligence techniques in healthcare, in particular deep neural networks and so-called reinforcement learning. Neural networks are algorithms that process data layer by layer, with each layer receiving data from the previous layer as input and passing on an output to the next layer. Expenditure is not necessarily binary (just on or off), but can be valued. Reinforcement learning algorithms adapt their approach based on feedback from their environment.

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One of AI's contributions to anti-aging science is the development of so-called aging clocks. These "clocks" help to understand the causes of aging and how to combat it. In 2013, Professor Steve Horvath of the University of California at Los Angeles convinced a skeptical world that biomarkers at 353 locations on the DNA strand could accurately "predict" (estimate) a person's age. The causal relationships between the indicators and a person's age aren't yet clear, but leading AI health researcher Alex Zhavoronkov believes that when AI is trained to predict age based on certain types of biological data, it is learning biology. The hope is that, over time, this AI will help us better understand how aging works.

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What is aging?

There is no firm consensus about the nature of aging, but it can be described as the cumulative effects of our metabolism on our bodies. Metabolism is the process by which food is converted into energy and into the materials we need, such as proteins and other molecules. It is also the process by which various types of waste materials are eliminated.

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The damage to our body caused by metabolism must be addressed on a much smaller scale, namely at the cellular level. In general, scientists working in the field of aging have nine license plates established in connection with the aging process, with most being interrelated. Some cells become stiff, others atrophy; some reproduce when they shouldn't, and others stop multiplying when they should. Some suffer from mutations in the tiny batteries in their nuclei (the mitochondria); others are filled with trash, both inside and in between. De Grey argues that we've known the basics of repairing all these types of damage for a long time, but the devil is in the details, and that detail is tremendously complex. AI can help decipher this complexity.

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The most famous pioneer in the field of anti-aging is the British scientist and founder of the SENS Research Foundation, Aubrey de Grey. De Grey began his career in artificial intelligence before deciding that fighting aging was even more important than using AI. He has long held the idea that medicine will soon be able to give us all an extra year of life with every year lived, so that most of us would actually stop getting older. He calls this “Longevity Escape Velocity,” and given the emerging change in consciousness, he believes that there is a 50% chance of achieving this goal by 2035.

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Life expectancy and health span

Others believe that the most important goal should not be to extend the life span, but to extend the Health span, i.e. the time in which we live without illness. They point out that the reduction in the mortality rate, particularly in the last half century, has dramatically increased the financial burden on industrialized countries, as the life span has extended without the health range having increased accordingly.

In reality, these goals are mutually supportive and not mutually exclusive. Extending the health span without extending the lifespan means that the real cause of aging illnesses, namely aging itself, is not being addressed.

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AI agents

Researchers are increasingly using artificial intelligence to identify and develop new drugs. And in the distant future, there will be personalized AI agents who study the idiosyncrasies of our bodies — our genetic makeup, our microbiome, etc. They will advise us and inspire us to change our behavior, including diet, exercise, and sleep. They will develop digital twins, virtual models of each of us as individual and unique organisms.

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The near and the far horizon

As with all discussions about the impact of artificial intelligence, it is important to remain realistic when it comes to timelines. We're just at the beginning of our AI journey and are still a long way from fully understanding and stopping the mechanisms of aging. But AI is making exponential progress, and this type of improvement can produce amazing results over a period of a decade or two.

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In the meantime, health advice for all of us remains essentially what our grandmothers told us. Tina Woods interviewed 30 science and technology pioneers for her book “Live Longer With AI,” and she writes that their advice is consistent and simple — eat well and balanced, but not too much. Exercise regularly and get enough sleep. Make sure that life is guided by a goal and enriched by solid friendships. Anyone who sticks to it and is young enough can indeed live to a very old age.