Older adults find themselves in a unique moment with artificial intelligence. The technology offers significant benefits for seniors. But it also has drawbacks that could be particularly damaging to this group. Classes across the country are working to teach older people about AI’s ability to transform how they interact with the world – and the threat the technology poses. They 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. An AARP report published in 2023 that Americans over 60 years old lose $28.3 billion annually through financial extortion schemes that have been sophisticated by AI. Experts from the National Council on Aging, an organization established in 1950 to advocate for older adults, said classes on AI have increased in recent years and are at the forefront of digital literacy efforts that began with teaching seniors about the Internet. Barbara Winston, 89, took an AI class at a senior center in Northfield, Illinois. Then she went home to try it on her own. "I think it's important to be alert and interested and excited and careful about AI like everything else," says Winston, adding "there will be evil in any world and the AI world will be no different." Linda Chipko, 70, recently took an introduction to AI class in Cumming, Georgia. Unlike Winston, she has no immediate plans to use what she learned in class. "I want to know about it (AI). I do want to know how to use it," but "it's like a lot of other things, I like to understand it, but it's not for me."