NORTHFIELD, Ill. (AP) — The students — most of them gray-haired, some with canes, all of them in their 60s or older — couldn’t believe their ears.
“Oh my God,” whispered a retired professor.
“Does it come with viruses?” wondered a bewildered woman scribbling on the second row of notes.
A 79-year-old woman in a black and white floral shirt then asked the question that many people were wondering: “How do you know if it’s fake or not?”
This is how seniors—many of whom lived through the advent of the refrigerator, 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 in an airy senior center in suburban Chicago, the 12 students were learning about the latest—and potentially biggest—technological leap in their lives.
And they’re not alone. Dozens of such classes have sprung up across the country to teach seniors about AI’s potential to transform their lives and the threats the technology poses.
“I’ve been watching refrigerators turn into fridges for as long as I’ve been around,” said Barbara Winston, 89, who paid to attend the class held at the North Shore Senior Center in Northfield. “And I think this is probably the biggest tech revolution I’ll ever see in my lifetime.”
Seniors are in a unique moment with technology. Artificial intelligence offers significant benefits to seniors, from the ability to curb loneliness to making it easier to get to medical appointments.
But it also has drawbacks that are uniquely threatening to this older group of Americans: A series of studies have shown that seniors are more susceptible both to scams perpetrated using artificial intelligence and to believing the kinds of misinformation amplified by the technology. Experts are particularly concerned about the role that deepfakes and other AI-generated misinformation could play in politics.
Winston left the classroom to begin her own AI journey, despite others remaining skeptical. When she got home, the retired professor downloaded books about the technology, researched platforms she wanted to use from her kitchen table, and eventually asked ChatGPT for advice on how to treat a personal medical condition.
“This is the beginning of my education,” she said, her floral cup of coffee nearby. “I’m not worried about protecting myself. I’m too old to worry about that.”
Such lessons are designed to familiarize older, novice users with the many ways the technology can improve their lives, while encouraging skepticism about the ways in which artificial intelligence can distort the truth.
Technology experts say balanced skepticism is critical for seniors planning to work with AI.
“It’s tough,” said Michael Gershbein, the instructor of the Northfield class. “Generally, the distrust that’s out there with 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 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 a range of technology topics, said interest in AI has skyrocketed in the past nine months. The 52-year-old teaches an AI course once or twice a week, he said, and aims to create a “safe space where (seniors) can come in and we can discuss all the issues that they might hear bits and pieces of, but we can put it all together and they can ask questions.”
During a 90-minute session on a Thursday in June, Gershbein discussed deepfakes: videos that use generative AI to make it look like someone said something they didn’t. When he played a few deepfakes, the seniors sat in amazement. They couldn’t believe how real the fake videos looked. There are widespread concerns that such videos could be used to mislead voters, especially seniors.
The threats to seniors go beyond politics, however, and range from basic misinformation on social media sites to scams that use voice-cloning technology to trick them. An AARP report released last year found that Americans over 60 lose $28.3 billion annually to financial extortion schemes, some of which are aided by AI.
According to experts at the National Council on Aging, an organization founded in 1950 to advocate for older adults, AI classes in nursing homes have increased in recent years and are a leading edge in digital literacy.
“There’s a myth that older people don’t use technology. We know that’s not true,” said Dianne Stone, deputy director of the National Council on Aging who ran a senior center in Connecticut for more than two decades. Such classes, she said, are designed to foster “healthy skepticism” about what the technology can do, and to arm 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.”
According to Siwei Lyu, a professor at the University of Buffalo, it can be difficult to find that balance. Classes often promote the benefits of AI or the dangers.
“We need this kind of education for seniors, but the approach we take has to be very balanced and well-designed,” said Lyu, who has given lectures to seniors and other groups.
Seniors who took such AI classes indicated that they had a clear understanding of the benefits and pitfalls of AI.
“It’s only as good as the people who program it, and the users have to understand that. You really have to question it,” said Linda Chipko, a 70-year-old who took an AI class in a suburb of Atlanta in June.
Chipko said she took the course because she wanted to “understand” AI, but when she left she 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 the Northfield 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 or you will be left behind.”
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