NORTHFIELD, Illinois: The students — most with gray hair, some with canes, all at least in their 60s — couldn’t believe what they were hearing.
“Oh, my God,” whispered a retired college professor.
“Does it come with viruses?” wondered a bewildered woman scribbling notes in the second row.
A 79-year-old in a black-and-white floral shirt then asked the question on many minds: “How do you know if it is fake or not?”
This is 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: taking a class. Sitting in a classroom in an airy senior center in a Chicago suburb, the dozen students were learning about the latest — and possibly greatest — technological leap in their lives.
And they are not alone. Across the country, scores of such classes have sprung up to teach seniors about AI’s ability to transform their lives and the threats the technology poses.
“I saw ice boxes turn into refrigerators, that is how long I have been around,” said Barbara Winston, 89, who paid to attend the class put on at the North Shore Senior Center in Northfield. “And I think this is probably the greatest technical revolution that I will see in my lifetime.”
Older adults find themselves in a unique moment with technology. Artificial intelligence offers significant benefits for seniors, from the ability to curb loneliness to making it easier for them 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 found that senior citizens are more susceptible to both scams perpetrated using artificial intelligence and believing the types of misinformation that are being supercharged by the technology. Experts are particularly concerned about the role deepfakes and other AI-produced misinformation could play in politics.
Winston left the class to start her own AI journey, even if others remained skeptical. When she got home, the retired professor downloaded books on the technology, researched the platforms she wanted to use from her kitchen table and eventually queried ChatGPT about how to treat a personal medical ailment.
“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.”
Classes like these aim to familiarize aging early adopters with the myriad ways the technology could better their lives but also encourage skepticism about how artificial intelligence can distort the truth.
Balanced skepticism, say experts on the technology, is critical for seniors who plan to interact with AI.
“It’s tricky,” said Michael Gershbein, the instructor of the class in Northfield. “Overall, the suspicion that is there on the part of seniors is good but I don’t want them to become paralyzed from 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 are so many new shoes no longer including shoelaces? Can AI create a multiday itinerary for a visit to Charleston, South Carolina? What are the geopolitical implications of artificial intelligence?
Gershbein, who teaches classes on a range of technological topics, said interest in AI has ballooned in the last 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 they may be hearing bits and pieces of but we can put it all together and they can ask questions.”
During a 90-minute-long session on a June Thursday, Gershbein discussed deepfakes — videos that use generative AI to make it appear someone said something they did not. When he played a few deepfakes, the seniors sat agog. They could not believe how real the fakes seemed. There are widespread concerns that such videos could be used to trick 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 published last year said that Americans over 60 lose $28.3 billion annually to financial extortion schemes, some assisted by AI.
Experts from the National Council on Aging, an organization established in 1950 to advocate for seniors, said classes on AI at senior centers have increased in recent years and are at the forefront of digital literacy efforts.
“There’s a myth out there that older adults don’t use technology. We know that that’s not true,” said Dianne Stone, associate director at the National Council on Aging who ran a senior center in Connecticut for over two decades. Such courses, she said, are meant to foster a “healthy skepticism” in what the 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 kind of sort it out for yourself.”
Striking that balance, said Siwei Lyu, a University at Buffalo professor, can be difficult, and classes 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 have taken such AI classes said they came away with a clear understanding of AI’s benefits and pitfalls.
“It’s only as good as the people who program it, and the users need to understand that. You really have to question it,” said Linda Chipko, a 70-year-old who attended an AI class in June in suburban Atlanta.
Chipko said she took the class because she wanted to “understand” AI, but on her way out said, “It’s not for me.”
Others have even embraced it. Ruth Schneiderman, 77, used AI to help 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 until she was 90,” Schneiderman said, “and I learned from her if you want to survive in this world, you have to adjust to the change. Otherwise you are left behind.”
Older Americans prepare themselves for a world altered by artificial intelligence
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Older Americans prepare themselves for a world altered by artificial intelligence
- Artificial intelligence offers significant benefits for seniors, from the ability to curb loneliness to making it easier for them to get to medical appointments
Vessel rescued in English Channel after emergency call to Dover, Delaware, instead of Dover, England
Vessel rescued in English Channel after emergency call to Dover, Delaware, instead of Dover, England
- Dispatchers for the city of Dover found themselves at the center of an international rescue effort last month after receiving a call from an Albanian man
- “The caller had conducted an Internet search for the ‘Dover Police Department’ and the first search result on the screen proved to be the Dover, Delaware Police Department,” police said
DELAWARE, USA: Police dispatchers in Delaware’s capital city are being lauded for helping direct rescuers to a boat foundering in the English Channel thousands of miles away.
Dispatchers for the city of Dover found themselves at the center of an international rescue effort last month after receiving a call from an Albanian man who thought he was calling emergency personnel in Dover, England.
The mix-up happened Aug. 27, when the man learned that his brother’s boat was sinking in the English Channel, according to Delaware authorities.
“The caller had conducted an Internet search for the ‘Dover Police Department’ and the first search result on the screen proved to be the Dover, Delaware Police Department,” police officials said in a news release Thursday. “The family member thought they were calling Dover, England but was connected with our agency here in the United States.”
Recognizing that trying to refer the frantic caller to authorities in England could cost valuable time, Communications Operator MacKenzie Atkinson kept the man on the line and began collecting critical information. The caller provided the coordinates of the vessel, and Atkinson, who had recently acquired certification from the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch, followed protocols for a vessel in distress, officials said.
Meanwhile, Communications Officer Connor Logan began making international notifications. Within four minutes, he established contact with the several agencies, including the US Coast Guard, French Coast Guard, His Majesty’s Coast Guard in England, the United Kingdom’s Maritime and Coast Guard Agency’s Coordination Center, and police stations in Dover, England, officials said.
Dover police said that 15 minutes and 48 seconds after the initial call, the Maritime and Coast Guard Agency confirmed that rescuers were on their way to the vessel. Dover police said they received confirmation on Sept. 5 that the vessel and everyone on board were safely returned to the Port of Dover, England.
Dover police officials have nominated Atkinson, Logan and two other communications officers on duty during the emergency for a Distinguished Unit Commendation.
Hearts, tails and blubber at Japan fin whale tasting
- Tokoro’s firm Kyodo Senpaku hopes the taste of fin whale will revive demand and help it recoup the costs of its new 9,300-tonne ‘mothership’
- With three-quarters of Japan mountainous and ill-suited to agriculture, Japan has long relied on the sea – including whales – as a vital source of food
TOKYO: Bite-size portions of fin whale were available to sniff and taste Friday as Japan’s whaling industry seeks to rekindle appetite for a traditional protein source that has fallen out of favor.
“Once young people eat it and they realize it’s good, they will eat it more and more,” Hideki Tokoro, the head of Japan’s main whaling firm, said at the event at Tokyo’s main wholesale fish market.
“People are excited about the fin whale... It’s just delicious,” he said in his trademark whale-themed hat and jacket.
Since 2019, Japan has caught whales in its own waters after abandoning under international pressure hunting for “scientific purposes” in the Antarctic Ocean and the North Pacific.
The catch list was limited to sei, minke, and Bryde’s whales, but this year fin whales — the planet’s second-largest animal — were added and on August 1 the first killed.
Tokoro’s firm Kyodo Senpaku hopes the taste of fin whale will revive demand and help it recoup the costs of its new 9,300-tonne “mothership.”
Almost every part of the whale was on display, including slabs of heart, slices of tail and chunks of blubber.
With three-quarters of Japan mountainous and ill-suited to agriculture, Japan has long relied on the sea — including whales — as a vital source of food.
As imports of other meats have grown, consumption of whale has slumped to around 1,000 to 2,000 tons per year compared to around 200 times that in the 1960s.
Kyodo Senpaku this week released footage showing its first fin whale catch. The animal was almost 20 meters (65 feet) long and weighed at least 55 tonnes.
Fin whales are deemed “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Japan’s decision to catch them has alarmed conservationists.
Japan’s industry has come under additional scrutiny since the arrest of US-Canadian anti-whaling activist Paul Watson, 73, in Greenland in July on a Japanese warrant.
Watson co-founded Sea Shepherd, whose members played a high-seas game of cat-and-mouse with Japanese whaling ships in the 2000s and 2010s.
Anna Okada, a visitor to Friday’s event who runs a cafe in the Yamanashi region, said that she is on a mission to jazz up whale meat to appeal to younger people.
“Sashimi and deep-fried whale meat have an old-fashioned image of having a bad smell,” Okada said.
“The popularity can spread quickly when people try and find it delicious,” she said.
“If it’s sold from younger people’s perspective, for example like casual, stylish and tasty tacos, I think it will be popular quickly.”
Some schools are starting to serve it again in their canteens, she said, while products where the whale content isn’t obvious — such as in dumplings — can increase demand.
Keita Ishii, another visitor to the tasting event who works for an “izakaya” pub in Tokyo — famous for their meat skewers — was impressed.
“We’re using Bryde’s whale (for our restaurant). I came here to look for other whale meat today,” he said.
“The fin whale tasted different. It was delicious.”
Two men charged with stealing a famous Banksy image from a London art gallery
- Larry Fraser and James Love are alleged to have taken ‘Girl with Balloon’ from the Grove Gallery on Sunday night
- Police say they have recovered the work, which is valued in court documents at $355,000
LONDON: Two men have been charged with burglary over the theft of an artwork by street artist Banksy from a London gallery, police said Friday.
The Metropolitan Police force said Larry Fraser, 47, and James Love, 53, are alleged to have taken “Girl with Balloon” from the Grove Gallery on Sunday night.
The suspects appeared at Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court on Thursday and were ordered detained until their next hearing on Oct. 9.
Police say they have recovered the work, which is valued in court documents at 270,000 pounds ($355,000).
The stolen work is one of several versions of “Girl with Balloon,” a stenciled image of a child reaching for a heart-shaped red balloon. Originally stenciled on a wall in east London, the picture has been endlessly reproduced, becoming one of Banksy’s best-known images.
Another version partially self-destructed during a 2018 auction, passing through a shredder hidden in its frame just after it was purchased for 1.1 million pounds ($1.4 million) at Sotheby’s.
The self-shredded work, retitled “Love is in the Bin,” sold for 18.6 million pounds ($25.4 million at the time) in 2021.
Bansky, who has never confirmed his full identity, began his career spray-painting buildings in Bristol, England, and has become one of the world’s best-known artists. His mischievous and often satirical images include two policemen kissing, armed riot police with yellow smiley faces and a chimpanzee with a sign bearing the words, “Laugh now, but one day I’ll be in charge.”
His paintings and installations sell for millions of dollars at auction and have drawn thieves and vandals.
This summer a series of animal-themed stencils showed up around London. One of them, a howling wolf on a satellite dish, was removed by a masked man less than an hour after it was confirmed as authentic. An image of a gorilla at London Zoo and piranhas in a police sentry box in London’s financial district were both removed by the authorities for safekeeping.
Justin Timberlake expected in New York court to plead guilty in drunken driving case
- Details of the agreement with prosecutors weren’t disclosed, but a person with knowledge of the deal says Timberlake has agreed to admit guilt to a less serious offense
- Sag Harbor police say the former NSYNC singer ran a stop sign, veered out of his lane and got out of his BMW smelling of alcohol in the village center in the Hamptons
SAG HARBOR: Justin Timberlake is expected to plead guilty Friday following his June arrest in the Hamptons for drunken driving.
The boy band singer-turned-solo star and actor will appear in Sag Harbor Village Court on Friday to formally enter a new plea, prosecutors said.
Details of the agreement with prosecutors weren’t disclosed, but a person with knowledge of the deal said Timberlake has agreed to admit guilt to a lesser offense of ” driving while ability impaired,” a traffic violation that carries a $300 to $500 fine and a 90-day license suspension.
The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the deal until it was approved by a judge Friday.
The pop star originally pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor charge of driving while intoxicated and had his driver’s license suspended during a hearing last month.
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney’s office, which is prosecuting the case, declined to comment ahead of the hearing, as did Timberlake’s attorney, Edward Burke.
Timberlake was arrested in Sag Harbor, New York, a little after midnight on June 18 after police said he ran a stop sign in the village center, veered out of his lane and got out of his BMW smelling of alcohol.
Police in court filings also said the 43-year-old Tennessee native’s eyes were “bloodshot and glassy” and that he had “slowed speech,” was unsteady on his feet and performed poorly on all sobriety tests.
Timberlake told the officer he had had one martini and was following some friends home, police said.
Sag Harbor is a one-time whaling village mentioned in Herman Melville’s classic novel “Moby-Dick” that is nestled amid the Hamptons, an area of seaside communities around 100 miles (160 kilometers) east of New York City.
Timberlake’s license suspension in New York likely impacts his ability to drive in other states, a legal expert said this week.
Refusing a Breathalyzer test, as Timberlake did during his arrest, triggers an automatic suspension of one’s license under New York state law, which should then be enforced in other states, according to Kenneth Gober, a managing partner at the law firm Lee, Gober & Reyna in Austin, Texas.
“Most states participate in the interstate Driver’s License Compact, an agreement to share information about license suspensions and traffic violations,” he explained in an email. “If a license is suspended in one state it should be suspended in all states.”
In practice, though, it can take a long time for such changes to be reflected across state lines, Gober acknowledged. The pop star also has the resources to easily arrange for a driver and doesn’t need a car to drive to do his job, he added.
Timberlake’s agent and other representatives didn’t respond to emails seeking comment this week.
The 10-time Grammy winner hasn’t publicly addressed the arrest but seemed to acknowledge it during a performance in Chicago just days later.
“It’s been a tough week,” he told the audience during the June 21 show at the United Center. “But you’re here, and I’m here. Nothing can change this moment right now.”
Timberlake has been on tour for months in support of his latest album. He returns to the New York City area in the coming weeks with concerts in Newark, New Jersey and Brooklyn.
Studies on pigeon-guided missiles, swimming abilities of dead fish among Ig Nobels winners
- Held less than a month before the actual Nobel Prizes are announced, the 34th annual Ig Nobel prize ceremony at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was organized by the Annals of Improbable Research magazine’s website to make people laugh and think
BOSTON: A study that explores the feasibility of using pigeons to guide missiles and one that looks at the swimming abilities of dead fish were among the winners Thursday of this year’s Ig Nobels, the prize for comical scientific achievement.
Held less than a month before the actual Nobel Prizes are announced, the 34th annual Ig Nobel prize ceremony at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was organized by the Annals of Improbable Research magazine’s website to make people laugh and think. Winners received a transparent box containing historic items related to Murphy’s Law — the theme of the night — and a nearly worthless Zimbabwean $10 trillion bill. Actual Nobel laureates handed the winners their prizes.
“While some politicians were trying to make sensible things sound crazy, scientists discovered some crazy-sounding things that make a lot of sense,” Marc Abrahams, master of ceremonies and editor of the magazine, said in an email interview.
The ceremony started with Kees Moliker, winner of 2003 Ig Noble for biology, giving out safety instructions. His prize was for a study that documented the existence of homosexual necrophilia in mallard ducks.
“This is the duck,” he said, holding up a duck. “This is the dead one.”
After that, someone came on stage wearing a yellow target on their chest and a plastic face mask. Soon, they were inundated with people in the audience throwing paper airplanes at them.
Then, the awards began — several dry presentations which were interrupted by a girl coming on stage and repeatedly yelling “Please stop. I’m bored.” The awards ceremony was also was broken up by an international song competition inspired by Murphy’s Law, including one about coleslaw and another about the legal system.
The winners were honored in 10 categories, including for peace and anatomy. Among them were scientists who showed a vine from Chile imitates the shapes of artificial plants nearby and another study that examined whether the hair on people’s heads in the Northern Hemisphere swirled in the same direction as someone’s hair in the Southern Hemisphere.
Other winners include a group of scientists who showed that fake medicine that causes side effects can be more effective than fake medicine that doesn’t cause side effects and one showing that some mammals are capable of breathing through their anus — winners who came on stage wearing a fish-inspired hats.
Julie Skinner Vargas accepted the peace prize on behalf of her late father B.F. Skinner, who wrote the pigeon-missile study. Skinner Vargas is also the head of the B.F. Skinner Foundation.
“I want to thank you for finally acknowledging his most important contribution,” she said. “Thank you for putting the record straight.”
James Liao, a biology professor at the University of Florida, accepted the physics prize for his study demonstrating and explaining the swimming abilities of a dead trout.
“I discovered that a live fish moved more than a dead fish but not by much,” Liao said, holding up a fake fish. “A dead trout towed behind a stick also flaps its tail to the beat of the current like a live fish surfing on swirling eddies, recapturing the energy in its environment. A dead fish does live fish things.”
