Written by Tanya Terry, with photos by Tanya Terry
UNITED AI ACADEMY™ recently hosted a powerful community education event titled Senior AI Safety Seminar on March 20, at the Gloria Coles Flint Public Library. According to event organizers, one of the reasons the workshop was held is because as artificial intelligence rapidly reshapes the digital world, a new wave of online scams, cybercrime and identity theft is increasingly targeting older adults. The event was intended to provide seniors with critical knowledge about cybersecurity, artificial intelligence safety, scam prevention, online privacy protection and digital literacy.
The speakers included Randall Douglas (Computer Junkies), Deputy Somers and Deputy Reeves (Genesee County Sheriff’s Department), Jim Floyd (Microsoft), Amy Jo Griffith and Jason Kittle (Huntington Bank) and Melissa Hartman (C2C Real Estate Group).
2nd Ward Flint City Councilwoman Ladel Lewis acted as the event’s emcee.
Douglas stated that at Computer Junkies, they use AI tools to help diagnose broken PCs faster, but they never let AI make the final call.
He added that Computer Junkies offers free computer diagnosis.
Lewis asked him what kind of scams or digital threats were becoming more common because of AI.
Douglas answered that people are getting emails from random places, sometimes even with a different country code, often telling them they owe money.
According to Douglas, once the email is clicked, the scammer is inside your device and able to eventually control it remotely. You have a virus, and the scammer has access to your bank account, passwords and anything you type.
Douglas said this can happen when attachments are clicked, as well as email addresses.
“But the first line of defense is going to have a real virus and spyware protection on your computer that uses AI to kind of spot those things and notify you before you click on them,” Douglas said.
Douglas said Windows 11 has a built-in first level of security called Defender that Windows 10 does not have. He also adds an additional layer of security called UBlock that indicates websites where lots of pop-ups are happening.
The deputies with the Genesee County Sheriff’s Office stated one common scam targeting seniors that they continue to see a lot of is the granddaughter-grandson scam. In the scam, the scammers states to the caller that their loved one is in jail. The senior is told they need to send money to get them out.
Reeves pointed out once someone is arrested and incarcerated, it takes 72 hours before everything is processed, they go in front of a judge and that’s where they get the bond on the amount they can be released on, if applicable.
So, a bondsperson or their loved ones themselves would be the ones who would call a grandparent.
Therefore, it was suggested the seniors hang up the phone and call their grandchildren or the jail directly if they are suspicious of scammers.
Floyd talked about some of the more promising innovations that involve the use of AI.
For example, he talked about how AI is used to aid in knee replacements. AI is used to take X-rays or MRIs and feed it into an application. That application will help the doctor to ultimately analyze whether a patient needs a full knee replacement of a partial replacement.
Then, the information is fed into a robot. The robot then can assist in the surgery by telling the robot how deep to make the cut and how long to make the cut for a perfect incision.
Because the knee is a Smart knee, it connects to a phone and has the ability to see how much a person is moving. Based on that information, it updates recovery time and what needs to be done. It also sends notifications if a person needs to get up and/or start walking more. Then, when doctors see their patients, they have more information. Therefore, they don’t have to spend time asking you questions and can focus on the patient’s recovery.
The speakers representing Huntington Bank provided plenty of valuable information, also answering questions along with the other speakers.
Some of their tips included having another person on accounts for an extra set of eyes, even if the account holder is not extremely old. They also suggested getting set up for alerts from banking institutions and checking for alerts.
Hartman pointed out it is always possible to get a live person in real estate if someone is uncomfortable signing documents with their phones, using their laptops or with other devices. She advises anyone uncomfortable to “just say it.”
“And I would print it, and I would come to your house, and we’ll go step by step, page by page,” Hartman added.
She advised against answering unexpected texts from people stating they are interested in buying your home.
It was also pointed out that scammers are adding themselves to home titles by going into the county website. Those who have questions on whether scammers have done so on their home were advised to talk to a realtor or title company that’s legit, visit the Register of Deeds and/or invest in a one-time purchase of a Title Lock protection to help monitor the status of house titles.
Another AI workshop will take place April 24. Look for details at www.theflintcouriernews.com, as well as in upcoming print issues of the Courier!
