Older Americans Prepare for a World Altered by AI – NBC Connecticut

The students, most of them with grey hair, some with canes and all at least 60 years old, could not believe what they were hearing.

“Oh my God,” whispered a retired university professor.

“Does it come with a virus?” a woman in the second row asked in bewilderment as she scribbled notes.

A 79-year-old man in a black-and-white floral shirt then posed the question many are asking: “How do you know if it’s fake or not?”

Here’s how older adults, many of whom lived through the advent of refrigeration, the transition from radio to television and the invention of the Internet, are grappling with artificial intelligence: by taking a class. Sitting in a classroom at a spacious senior center in a Chicago suburb, the dozen students were learning about the latest (and arguably the biggest) technological advancement in their lifetimes.

And they are not alone. Dozens of such classes have sprung up across the country to teach older adults about the life-changing power of AI and the threats the technology poses.

“I saw ice chests become refrigerators, a long time ago,” said Barbara Winston, 89, who paid to attend the class at the North Shore Senior Center in Northfield. “And I think this is probably the biggest technical revolution I’ll see in my lifetime.”

Older adults find themselves in a unique moment with respect to technology. Artificial intelligence offers significant benefits for seniors, from the ability to curb loneliness to making it easier for them to access medical appointments.

But it also has downsides that are especially threatening to this group of older Americans: A number of studies have found that older citizens are more susceptible to both scams perpetrated by artificial intelligence and to believing the kinds of misinformation that are being amplified by the technology. Experts are particularly concerned about the role that deepfakes and other AI-produced disinformation could play in politics.

Winston ditched class to embark on her own journey into AI, even though others were skeptical. When she got home, the retired teacher downloaded books on the technology, researched platforms she wanted to use from her kitchen table, and eventually consulted ChatGPT on how to treat a personal ailment.

“This is the beginning of my education,” he said, his flower-print coffee cup nearby. “I’m not worried about protecting myself. I’m too old to worry about that.”

Classes like these aim to familiarize older early adopters with the myriad ways technology could improve their lives, but they also foster skepticism about how artificial intelligence can distort the truth.

Balanced skepticism, technology experts say, is key for older people planning to interact with AI.

“It’s complicated,” said Michael Gershbein, the instructor for the class at Northfield. “Overall, the distrust that exists on the part of seniors is good, but I don’t want them to be paralyzed by their fears and not be willing to do anything online.”

The questions posed in his class outside Chicago ranged from the absurd to the practical to the academic. Why do so many new shoes no longer have laces? Can AI create a multi-day itinerary for a visit to Charleston, South Carolina? What are the geopolitical implications of artificial intelligence?

Gershbein, who teaches classes on a wide range of technology topics, said interest in AI has grown tremendously over the past nine months. The 52-year-old teaches an AI course once or twice a week, he said, and his goal is to create a “safe space where (seniors) can come and we can discuss all the topics they may be hearing bits and pieces of, but we can bring them together and they can ask questions.”

During a 90-minute session on a Thursday in June, Gershbein talked about deepfakes — videos that use generative artificial intelligence to make it look like someone said something they didn’t. When he played some deepfakes, seniors were stunned. They couldn’t believe how real the fake videos looked. There is widespread concern that such videos could be used to mislead voters, especially seniors.

But threats to seniors extend beyond politics, ranging from basic misinformation on social media to scams using voice-cloning technology to trick them. An AARP report released last year found that Americans over 60 lose $28.3 billion a year to financial extortion schemes, some of them aided by artificial intelligence.

Experts at the National Council on Aging, an organization established in 1950 to advocate for older people, said AI classes at senior centers have increased in recent years and are at the forefront of digital literacy efforts.

“There’s a myth that older adults don’t use technology. We know that’s not true,” said Dianne Stone, associate director of the National Council on Aging, who ran a senior center in Connecticut for more than two decades. These courses, she said, aim to foster a “healthy skepticism” about what technology can do, arming older Americans with the knowledge that “not everything you hear is true — it’s good to get the information, but you have to figure it out for yourself.”

Striking that balance, said Siwei Lyu, a professor at the University at Buffalo, can be difficult, and classes tend to either promote the benefits of AI or focus on its dangers.

“We need this kind of education for older people, but the approach we take has to be very balanced and well-designed,” said Lyu, who has lectured to older people and other groups.

Seniors who took these types of AI classes said they came away with a clear understanding of the benefits and drawbacks of AI.

“It’s only as good as the people who program it, and users need to understand it. You really have to question it,” said Linda Chipko, a 70-year-old who attended an artificial intelligence class in June in an Atlanta suburb.

Chipko said he took the class because he wanted to “understand” AI, but after leaving he said, “It’s not for me.”

Others have even embraced it. Ruth Schneiderman, 77, used AI to illustrate a children’s book she was writing, and that experience sparked her interest in taking Northfield’s class to learn more about the technology.

“My mother lived to be 90,” Schneiderman said, “and I learned from her that if you want to survive in this world, you have to adapt to change, otherwise you get left behind.”

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