I count myself among the millions of Millennials out there who grew up knowing the ins and outs of every piece of technology they came across.
Learning how to code by changing one’s MySpace page, figuring out how to download albums off of LimeWire, burning Dreamcast games to any disc in proximity and cooking up a beat on FL Studio for our friend’s (failed) foray into rapping stand out as some of my generation’s standout tech memories. As for Generation X, I know a few members of that age group who always called upon me and the other Millennials in their family to help them navigate all the confusing technology they had (and still have!) trouble learning.
It’s hard enough explaining to people in their 50s and over how to copy and paste, open multiple tabs on a browser or use a streaming service. It’s even tougher to explain to them how to get the best (and safest) use out of AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, etc.
After close observation of my parents’ and older family members' constant struggles with AI, I took note of them all and did my best to look up the most efficient fixes for each one.
Treating AI like a search engine is old hat
I’ll never forget showing ChatGPT to my mom for the first time and seeing her treat it like Google by asking it a myriad of basic questions, like “What’s the best exercise for someone in their 60’s?” I informed her that she should treat that chatbot more like a collaborator and less like your everyday search engine. For that fitness-based inquiry she brought to ChatGPT, I told her to reframe it as “Interview me and build a workout plan around my bad back, work schedule, and fitness goals.”
AI users over 50 should realize that giving AI tools as much context as possible when coming up with a prompt (which is defined as the message you type into a chat box for a chatbot to get a response). Making an AI tool aware of your decades of experience across several areas of your personal and professional life will help it give you more detailed answers catered to you instead of generic ones.
Instead of going with “How do I become more productive?”, you’ll get better results by telling a chatbot, “I’m 57, manage a team of 10 people, have ADHD tendencies, travel twice a month, and want to reclaim five hours per week. Build a productivity system for me.”
Another error I see folks in their 50s and older make with AI is only using it for information and not for decision-making purposes. It comes in handy when trying to compare options before making a purchase, stress-testing plans for an event, creating roadmaps before a road trip, simulating outcomes before making a major life decision, etc. And in those cases, being as informative as possible with your prompt while leaving out your most vital details (names, financial information, emails, personal address, etc.) is key.
Other problems and more fixes
Alongside making sure the 50-and-over crowd treats AI like a digital assistant instead of a universal web search tool, here are five other mistakes I’ve observed while watching older folks try their hand at utilizing chatbots:
- Trusting everything AI says at face value: The same generation that told millennials not to believe everything they read on the Internet sure has a bad habit of believing everything a chatbot tells them about their health, legal, or financial matters. Never use AI as your sole source of information—use it among a group of comparable citations from reliable outlets to get the trustworthy answers you seek.
- Trusting everything AI shows at face value: I’m tired of opening my Facebook Messenger and being treated to an obvious AI-generated photo/video and having my older family member write something that exposes how they think it’s real. The obvious telltale signs of AI visual content are an extra glossy presentation, unnatural facial features, characters with extra fingers, shadows pointing in the wrong direction and scrambled/misspelled text.
- Giving up after just one prompt: Patience is a virtue. And sadly, I’ve started to notice how the older folks I know are quick to give up after just one prompt/response session when they expect a perfect answer on the first try and don’t get it. They call AI tools “chatbots” for a reason—they’re here to have lengthy, meaningful conversations. Useful follow-up responses, such as “Make this sound friendlier and shorter” and “Give me the skeptical view”, help AI tools expound on the task at hand and produce improved results as a chat moves forward.
- Avoiding AI because they feel it’s not for them: I’ve gotten used to hearing older folks refrain from using AI because they think it’s strictly for “tech people.” I’ve had to explain to them how it works for folks in their age bracket since it can be used to discover recipes, build vacation itineraries, get directions, answer health-related questions, etc., which are the sort of things they regularly look for.
- Avoiding AI because of privacy and scam concerns: I totally understand older people avoiding AI due to their concerns about AI using their data and possibly having it exposed to scammers. Alongside deleting old chats, not letting chatbots access your location/personal photos and never entering your most crucial info, having secure chats with AI also means making your chats private or turning off their memory. Simply looking up “how to make my [chatbot name] chats private” will help you in this regard.
Final thoughts
Here’s an approach I always continually utter whenever my parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts approach me with a question on how to properly interact with AI:
“Don’t just ask it for answers. Ask it to broaden your way of thinking and help you in every way possible, but always rely on your own instincts and reliable info to make final decisions.” Chatbots are here to assist us with simple & complicated requests and generate visual content, but it’s always good to be mindful of their penchant for producing false information (aka “hallucinations”) and the visual cues that expose AI-generated videos/art.
Be aware of the common AI usage errors I pointed out and you’ll quickly transform into a chatbot power user who can show the youngsters a thing or two about how to properly use it.
Follow Tom's Guide on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Subscribe to Tom's Guide on YouTube and follow us on TikTok.
More from Tom’s Guide
- 7 ChatGPT features most people ignore — but have completely changed my workflow
- ChatGPT and Claude just got a powerful new scam detector — use these 10 prompts to scan emails, texts and more
- Google wants to train its AI on your search history. Here's how to opt out now
