New tech program for seniors launches in Mill Valley

For certain older adults, learning high tech might be the equivalent to the “opening a PDF” joke on a Progressive Insurance commercial, but a Mill Valley nonprofit hopes to change all that.

Founded in 2019, AIandYou launched in February a free, educational program called AI and Seniors, aimed at helping seniors navigate artificial intelligence.

The program comes with a two-part video series that explains in part how AI has become integrated in our daily lives and how its ability to enhance our day-to-day is as beneficial as saving a life. Case in point, AI-powered devices can signal alerts to caregivers if an older person falls or has an accident in the home.

Relative to computer safety, Part 2 provides tips on how to avoid scams — no matter how cunning. The video warns the technology harbors the ability to mimic the voice of a loved one asking for help.

“AI is different from any other technology anybody has experienced,” said founder Susan Gonzales, whose career background encompasses 15 years in the tech and telecom industries. She worked for Facebook and Comcast, to name a few firms.

“What’s important for seniors to understand is now’s not the time to be burying their heads,” she said. “They need to embrace AI.”

Gonzales listed health care as one industry that’s benefitting greatly from using it because of its level of efficiency. In particular, she mentioned its possible ease at identifying cardio distress.

“It can access a massive amount of data in a heartbeat, when it couldn’t have done so in the past,” she said.

The nonprofit also offers AI and Small Business, a tailored, business-to-business version of the technology that covers how AI may “reduce human interaction.” At the same time, this tendency may also produce more difficulty for customers.

Gonzales said more than 2,000 users have visited AIandYou, an entity supported financially through foundations and donors. The nonprofit declined to provide access to a user or financial contributor to comment or the organization’s operating budget.

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