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TOKYO - Mr Tomiji Suzuki started coding in retirement and is now making apps for the fast-growing senior demographic in Japan, using ChatGPT to fine-tune his skills. So far, the 89-year-old has developed 11 free iPhone apps to help the country’s ageing population, including his latest – a slideshow of items to remember when leaving the house, from a wallet and hearing aids to patient registration cards. He was inspired to create the app, which features his granddaughter’s voice, after he realised he had forgotten his dentures as he was about to board a train. “These kinds of things happen to the elderly,” he said with a laugh, adding that his age has been an advantage when coming up with ideas for the programs. “No matter how hard they try, I don’t think younger people understand the elderly‘s needs and expectations,” he said. Nearly a third of Japan’s population is aged 65 and above, making it the world’s oldest country after tiny Monaco and . As in other developed economies, the plummeting birth rate has raised fears of a looming demographic crisis, with not enough workers to support the growing ranks of retired. Mr Suzuki used to work at a trading house but developed an interest in computing in later life, taking a programming course in the early 2010s. “I like creating things,” he said. “When I discovered I could develop apps myself and if I do, Apple will market them worldwide, just like that – it felt like a great idea.” To help him make the app, Outing Prep Voice Slide Show, released in April, he asked around 1,000 coding-related questions to ChatGPT. He described the generative artificial intelligence chatbot as a “great teacher” and has published a book about using it as a programming mentor. “I’m lucky. If I’d passed away a year or two years ago, I wouldn’t have encountered (ChatGPT),” he said. Mr Suzuki said his old job exporting cars to South-east Asia and other regions had helped him ask it the right questions. “In my younger days, trading houses used telegrams to communicate. You had to take care to send a clear message, in one short sentence.” The most popular of his apps is Pee Count Record, which gets 30 downloads each week, despite no efforts being spent on marketing. When Mr Suzuki had hernia surgery two years ago, the nurses would ask him how many times he had urinated. But with the number as high as 12 a day after the operation, “I couldn’t remember without recording it”, he said. So he decided to make an app to help keep track. His older brother Kinji Suzuki, 92, uses several of the apps, including Voice Input Assist. “It’s handy because when you get old, it becomes bothersome to type,” he said, showing how to use the voice recognition tool to send e-mails. Mr Etsunobu Onuki, 75, runs a hearing aid shop in suburban Tokyo where the younger Suzuki is a customer. He uses a mouth-muscle strengthening app created by Mr Suzuki called A-I-U-Be Exercise, after the sounds the user is prompted to make. “I always do it while sitting in the bath,” said Mr Onuki, who also uses the new slideshow app, which stops him from leaving his house key in the shop when closing up. “I want to recommend this app to customers” – many of them are in their 70s and 80s and often forget to bring their registration card for the shop. Mr Suzuki, a member of a national group called the Senior Programming Network (SPN), said other members have helped him along his journey. SPN founder Katsushiro Koizumi, 51, believes that “seniors and AI have good chemistry”. He is urging members to go one step further and embed burgeoning generative AI tools within their apps, which seniors can interact with. “Users can operate the app by simply speaking natural language” because it is sometimes difficult for seniors to hold down a button, or drag and drop an icon, on a small phone screen. Mr Suzuki said that although the hurdles are high to becoming an elderly app developer, “once you delve into this world, you will see that it’s a lot of fun”. “If you don’t have anything to do after retirement, please look into it. You could discover a new self.” AFP