“The goal of the workshops is for participants to gain some proficiency in using ChatGPT tools confidently and safely to spot scams and prevent fraud,” OpenAI spokesperson Nate Evans told USA TODAY.
The sessions will show participants how to use ChatGPT as a second check when they receive suspicious emails, text messages, websites or phone calls. OpenAI also plans to cover broader safety practices, including verifying information and avoiding the disclosure of sensitive personal data.
The program arrives alongside new OpenAI research on how people are already using ChatGPT to evaluate possible scams. The company estimates that nearly 25 million people worldwide use ChatGPT to check suspicious activity in an average week, with more than 130 million individual scam checks taking place during that period.
Jack Stubbs, who leads OpenAI’s scam detection and prevention work, said the company sees ChatGPT as an additional layer of verification rather than a replacement for other safeguards.
“Anything we can do... so they're empowered to help keep themselves safe, the better,” Stubbs said.
He also cautioned users to “treat this as kind of a second opinion or a second pair of eyes” and said people “should also check with someone they trust.”
OpenAI’s data suggests older users are turning to ChatGPT for scam checks less often than some younger groups. About 1.9% of ChatGPT users over age 64 asked the service about possible scams during an average week, according to the company’s analysis.
Among users ages 45 to 64, that figure was about 3%. OpenAI said the difference may partly reflect the age distribution of ChatGPT’s broader user base.
“I think it's just representative demographics, but also possibly some of what we're trying to address,” Stubbs said.
OpenAI said online shopping concerns were the most common type of potential scam users asked ChatGPT to evaluate, followed by issues involving banking, payments and account security.
The company’s research examined aggregated, anonymized user data collected from August through September.
The partnership also comes as generative AI is being used on both sides of online fraud. Consumers can use tools such as ChatGPT to examine suspicious messages, while scammers can use AI to produce more convincing content faster and at lower cost.
“The primary use case for scammers is using the AI as an efficiency tool to do what they've always done, to do it quicker and cheaper and more efficiently than was possible before,” Stubbs said.
OpenAI said it has teams focused on detecting and preventing misuse of its technology.
The September workshops are part of a broader effort that is expected to continue next year. OpenAI and AARP plan to take a mobile technology center called the Digital Discovery Lab to additional rural and urban communities, giving older adults access to AI tools and in-person instruction.
Senior Planet is providing the mobile center and supporting the educational program.
The initiative gives OpenAI a direct way to introduce ChatGPT to older adults through an organization already focused on technology education for that audience. For participants, the emphasis is practical: learning when ChatGPT can help, how to question its answers and how to use it as one more tool when something online does not look right.
This analysis is based on reporting from USA Today.
Image courtesy of mlq.ai.
This article was generated with AI assistance and reviewed for accuracy and quality.
