A quiet transformation is taking place across Australia’s care systems. Every day, hundreds of elders and people living with disability are assessed for essential supports, such as home care, mobility aids, home modifications and therapies that help them live safely with dignity at home and in their communities.

Once the domain of health professionals, these decisions used to rely on a combination of clinical expertise and the basic human ability to recognise and respond to the needs of others. Computers have neither of these qualities. Yet in the current era of AI hype and the fetishisation of all things automated, we are increasingly turning to computers for guidance on fundamentally human questions of care, vulnerability and need.