US seniors lose $28 billion a year to scams, and some are fighting back by learning to spot deepfakes, AI and misinformation

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

“Does it come with viruses?” asked a puzzled woman, scribbling notes in the second row.

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

This is how older adults—many of whom lived through the advent of the refrigerator, the transition from radio to television, and the invention of the Internet—come to grips with artificial intelligence: take a class. Sitting in a classroom in an airy senior center in a Chicago suburb, the ten students were learning about the latest—and perhaps the biggest—technological leap of their lives.

And they are not alone. Across the country, dozens of such courses have sprung up to teach seniors about AI’s ability to transform their lives and the threats the technology poses.

“I’ve seen ice boxes turn into refrigerators, they’ve been around that long,” 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 at a unique time with technology. Artificial intelligence offers significant benefits for the elderly, from the ability to reduce loneliness to facilitating their access to medical appointments.

But it also has downsides that uniquely threaten this older group of Americans: A number of studies have found that senior citizens are more susceptible to both AI-powered scams and to believing the kinds of misinformation that are fueled by 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 his own journey with artificial intelligence, even as others remained skeptical. When she got home, the retired teacher downloaded books about technology, researched the platforms she wanted to use from her kitchen table, and finally asked ChatGPT about how to treat a personal medical ailment.

“This is the beginning of my education,” she said, her floral coffee cup nearby. “I’m not worried about protecting myself. I’m too old to worry about that.”

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

Balanced skepticism, technology experts say, is essential for older people who plan to interact with AI.

“It’s complicated,” said Michael Gershbein, the instructor of the Northfield class. “In general, the suspicion that there is 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.”

The questions in his class outside of Chicago ranged from the absurd to the practical to the academic. Why do so many new shoes no longer include 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 courses on a range of technology topics, said interest in AI has grown over the past nine months. The 52-year-old teaches an AI class once or twice a week, he said, and aims to create a “safe space where (seniors) can come in and we can talk about all the issues about who might hear bits and pieces, 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 artificial intelligence to make it look like someone said something they didn’t. When he played a few deepfakes, the seniors stood tense. They couldn’t believe how real the fakes looked. There are widespread concerns that such videos could be used to trick voters, especially the elderly.

However, threats to the elderly go beyond politics and range from basic misinformation on social media to scams that use voice-cloning technology to trick them. An AARP report released last year said Americans over 60 lose $28.3 billion annually to financial extortion schemes, some of which are AI-assisted.

Experts at the National Council on Aging, an organization founded in 1950 to advocate for the elderly, said artificial intelligence classes at senior centers have grown 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 at the National Council on Aging, who has run a Connecticut senior center for more than two decades. Such classes, she said, are meant to encourage 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 work it out yourself.”

Finding that balance, said University at Buffalo professor Siwei Lyu, can be difficult, and courses tend to either promote AI’s benefits or focus on its 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 lectured to seniors and other groups.

Seniors who took such AI courses said they clearly understood the benefits and pitfalls of AI.

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

Chipko said she took the course because she wanted to “understand” AI, but when she left she said, “It’s not for me.”

Others even embraced him. Ruth Schneiderman, 77, used artificial intelligence to illustrate a children’s book she was writing, and the experience piqued her interest in taking the Northfield course to learn more about the technology.

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

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