Special report: AI literacy for adults 50+
Special report: AI literacy for adults 50+
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The problem
The problem
As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly integrated into everyday life, understanding and engaging with it is essential for people of all ages. Adults aged 50 and older represent a unique audience, as they express both curiosity about AI's potential and concern about its reliability, complexity, and impact on daily life. Without clear, accessible guidance, this group may feel uncertain or overwhelmed as AI tools become more prevalent.
our solution
our solution
We aim to empower older adults with the knowledge and confidence needed to navigate an AI-driven world through this newscast. Our approach focuses on delivering clear explanations in an accessible format to make AI understandable and practical. To support this goal, our newscast is centered around the following learning objectives:
1) Identify AI in everyday life.
2) Understand the difference between AI and human intelligence.
3) Distinguish between narrow and general AI.
4) Understand the benefits and limitations of AI.
5) Understand how to interact safely and responsibly with AI.
6) Develop confidence in making informed and ethical decisions when interacting with AI in everyday life.
who it's for
who it's for
This special report is designed around the six competencies outlined by Long and Magerko (2020) to support adults aged 50 and older who are witnessing rapid technological change and want to better understand how artificial intelligence shapes their daily lives. Many individuals in this age group are interested in AI's potential but are wary of its reliability and complexity. By focusing on familiar, applicable examples, this newscast aims to meet viewers where they are and offer clear explanations, practical guidance, and reassurance when using AI.
FriendlyStock (2025)
FriendlyStock (2025)
FriendlyStock (2025)
FriendlyStock (2025)
why it matters
why it matters
This report highlights that AI literacy is both achievable and essential for adults over 50. By learning to recognize where AI is already showing up in everyday life, understanding how machine intelligence differs from human thinking, and evaluating its strengths and limitations, viewers are better equipped to make confident, informed decisions when interacting with AI. As AI is becoming more woven into our world, building literacy ensures that older adults will remain capable, connected, and empowered in a rapidly evolving technological landscape, rather than feeling left behind.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Holly
Major: Psychology
Minor: Spanish
Working on this project has helped me realize that AI is something that is shaping our everyday lives in ways that aren’t always completely transparent. Creating a newscast for those over 50 has helped me gain an appreciation for how people actually experience AI and why we need to provide them with more information about how to achieve AI literacy and why achieving AI literacy is important in understanding not only how these systems work, but how they influence our day-to-day routines, decisions, and experiences. Through this project, I have learned that AI can be used effectively as a complementary tool, so long as we understand its strengths and limitations. AI works best when paired with human judgment and reasoning, which is why being aware of AI’s capabilities is essential for using it responsibly.
Ant
Major: Psychology
Minor: SLAM
This project showed me how powerful AI already is in communication, business, and education, and how important it is to help people understand it clearly. I have a better understanding of how AI connects to human behavior and everyday decision-making. As someone studying psychology, I was interested in how people perceived and interacted with technology, especially adults over 50. It is very important to make AI education accessible and relatable. The most valuable thing I’ve learned is that while AI can enhance creativity and efficiency, it still depends on human insights and ethics to be used responsibly.
Akoni
Major: Psychology
I’ve learned from working on this project that AI is influencing our daily lives in ways that aren’t always quite obvious. When contributing to these projects and taking observations from people over the age of 50, it has given me a better understanding of how people really interact with AI and why it’s crucial to educate them about how to become AI knowledgeable and how these systems affect our daily routines, choices, and experiences. This study has shown me that, as long as we are aware of its advantages and disadvantages, AI may be used successfully as a secondary tool.
Alex
Major: Psychology
What I have learned most about AI while doing this project is how AI is in our everyday lives and is being used more and more. AI is being used for good and some not so good things but by creating this project we will be able to inform people especially those that are 50 years of age or older on what AI is and how it works. That is also something that is important to me because people that are older have a hard time understanding the internet as it is so now that there is AI involved it can be hard to decipher what is real and fake on the internet. Overall, being able to inform people about AI and the benefits it has but also the negative effects it can cause is the main goal so that AI usage does not get out of hand.
REFERENCES
AARP. (2023). Technology use among older adults: 2023 survey report. AARP Research. https://www.aarp.org/research
Ackerson, N. (2023). GPT is an unreliable information store: Understanding the limitations and dangers of large language models. Medium. https://medium.com/data-science/chatgpt-insists-i-am-dead-and-the-problem-with-language-models-db5a36c22f11
Brewer, R. (2025). How older adults use and think about AI. University of Michigan. National Poll on Healthy Aging. University of Michigan Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation. https://ihpi.umich.edu/national-poll-healthy-aging/reports-and-resources/how-older-adults-use-and-think-about-ai
Faverio, M. (2022). Share of those 65 and older who are tech users has grown in the past decade. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/01/13/share-of-those-65-and-older-who-are-tech-users-has-grown-in-the-past-decade/
FriendlyStock. (2025). Old man confused at computer [Illustration]. FriendlyStock.
FriendlyStock. (2025). Old man angry at computer [Illustration]. FriendlyStock.
FriendlyStock. (2025). Old man disappointed with computer [Illustration]. FriendlyStock.
FriendlyStock. (2025). Old man working on computer [Illustration]. FriendlyStock.
FriendlyStock. (2025). Old man hugging his computer [Illustration]. FriendlyStock.
Gavin, K. (2025). Older adults and AI: Poll suggests a wary welcome. Michigan Medicine. https://www.michiganmedicine.org/health-lab/older-adults-and-ai-poll-suggests-wary-welcome
Kakulla, B. (2025). Technology adoption continues as older adults integrate tech into daily life. AARP Research. https://doi.org/10.26419/res.00891.001
Kleinknecht, E. (2025). PSY 206 Weeks 1-9 [PowerPoint Slides]. PSY 206: Cognitive Psychology, Pacific University
Korteling, J.E. (2021). Human versus artificial intelligence. Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence (4)622364, 1-13. doi: 10.3389/frai.2021.622364
Long, D. & Magerko, B. (2020). What is AI literacy? Competencies and design considerations. In Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-16). ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376727
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