Seniors prepare for a world altered by artificial intelligence

Older adults find themselves at a unique moment in time with artificial intelligence revolutionizing the technology they use. Classes across the U.S. are now teaching seniors about AI’s ability to transform how they interact with the world—and the threat the technology might pose. Experts from the National Council on Aging in the U.S., an organization established in 1950 to advocate for seniors, say classes on AI for older people have increased in recent years. They’re also at the forefront of digital literacy efforts that began with teaching seniors about the internet. Barbara Winston, an 89-year-old student who’s relishing the challenge, said, “The technology is so interesting and so important that I really felt I need to be better informed about it. So, this is the beginning of my education.” “Older adults are future-oriented. They want to know what’s going on,” says Dianne Stone, an expert on teaching technology to seniors from the National Council on Aging. But there are threats to seniors that go beyond politics and range from basic misinformation on social media sites to more nefarious scams that use voice cloning technology powered by artificial intelligence to trick older Americans. Winston paid to attend this recent AI class at the North Shore Senior Center in suburban Chicago. She says “I think it’s important to be interested and alert and excited and careful about AI, like everything else.” “It’s tricky to kind of find that right balance. I would say, overall, that suspicion that’s there on the part of seniors is good, but I don’t want them to become paralyzed by their fears and not be willing to do anything online because they’re afraid of their identity getting stolen.” The technology offers significant benefits for seniors, from the ability to curb widespread loneliness to making it easier for them to get to medical appointments. Stone says, “I think that there’s risk involved in using AI. And part of that is, you know, understanding that it’s not a human, understanding that it’s a machine that’s doing machine learning.” This article was provided by The Associated Press.