Reg in AtL

AI and the Aging Population: Revolution or Resistance?

July 10, 2023 Reggie Johnson & Lora Clack Season 6 Episode 24
Reg in AtL
AI and the Aging Population: Revolution or Resistance?
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

In this episode Reggie and Lora explore the realm of automation and the generational gap in acceptance of these changes. It's a fascinating aspect, observing the younger generation seamlessly integrate automation into their lives while their senior counterparts lean more towards the human touch. 

We discuss the potentials and pitfalls of AI creating attractive profiles for potential dates or employers, and the risk of job automation. But we also marvel at the exciting possibilities of AI playing matchmaker, possibly revolutionizing the process of finding the right person or job. 

Speaker 1:

l and the been the AI year here now. At the beginning of this year I started off. I did like three or four episodes and when I called it the AI takeover and that was like in January and that was only after using chat GPT.

Speaker 1:

I remember talking to you about this and it was so incredible to me at that time, like I was like this is incredible, it's gonna change the world and all that stuff. And fast forward here four or five months roughly six at the time of recording. Actually, in AI, i'm seeing a lot of AI stuff. There's been a lot of AI companies. There's a lot of AI. There's people who feel like it's gonna take over the world. There's people who feel like it's gonna try to take over humanity. There's people who feel like it's gonna help humanity And I'm seeing a lot more AI stuff.

Speaker 1:

And one of the things that's interesting to me is how we feel like AI is gonna affect an aging group of people. Now we know that when we or at least I should say that from even having a computer store or just living through the internet and the advent of technology becoming so much more important in our lives via smartphones, whatever it may be that you had slower adoption there for a lot of people There's a lot of people who kinda get stuck in their ways And, if you think about it, if you're talking to a person that's lived a vast majority of their life without something, whether it is AI, which all of us have lived the vast majority of our lives without because it's so new, at least in the way that it is now, cause there's been Alexa and Siri and all that stuff. That's all still AI, so we've had that in our lives for a while, but AI in its generative form and newest form is very new for a lot of people And I wonder about the adoption here. Now, you personally, how quick are you to adopt new technology And we've talked about this with the iPhone for you, laura, and you fought the good fight with that last iPhone that you had How quick are you to adopt onto new technology and stuff yourself, laura?

Speaker 2:

So, believe it or not, reggie, i really am quick to adopt new technology, right? I think I'm just old enough to where I question things and I'm not gonna go blindly into things. With the phone situation, i just felt like Apple was forcing me to upgrade, And so that was my my hesitance in yeah, it really was my protest, Like why can't my phone work at this number as opposed to that number?

Speaker 2:

I think that was what I was grappling with, but they won ultimately And I gave in. But when it comes to AI, i'm excited. There's an anxiousness not necessarily anxious, and just kind of anxious to see the hype. Like, if it's gonna live up to the hype, and if it does, it could prove to be as amazing as it could be detrimental. So, like anything, right.

Speaker 1:

Correct, correct, and I personally I'm a tech guy so I love it. I'm always first adopter. I'm running in head first to see what's what may be on the horizon for people, you know, maybe on the horizon for humanity, and that's where I've been pretty much all my life. So I'm pretty big early adopter when it comes to a lot of technology. But at the same time I do understand why some people would not be, especially if you're more on the successful side. Right, if you've had success and you have what you want, you live the life you want, you have the house you want, you got the car you want, you got the things in your life that you feel are important are all in order for you.

Speaker 1:

I could see more hesitancy to change anything and more. You know the tech's just part of it. But if you're thinking, life's been pretty good for me up to this point, why in the world would I move over to something else? You know those are your typewriter people, days going over to computers. And that was your people who were like oh, why would I send an email? I've been sending mail for years.

Speaker 1:

You know those kind of folks who really felt there was a lot of those people out there too, for people who weren't around when the internet was kind of coming up. There were a lot of people even with the phones when the Blackberry was around and iPhone got introduced and people were like that thing doesn't even have a keyboard, it'll never last. You know, you had those folks out there, right, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Right, So would you the people around you.

Speaker 1:

Do you see them adopting stuff pretty quickly? What has that been like for your experience? or maybe people that you've seen, maybe in your job friends, family, stuff like that.

Speaker 2:

So my friends are not so much talking about AI, like we're all you know in our fifties we're talking about our conversations are very different than technology. A lot of you know they range the gamut most are in education, so I think but they're in. you know their principles, assistant principles, and they're really looking to retire. I think we all know that it's coming. I don't think anybody is like scared or anything, even though I've heard some things. You know that. You know, like I've seen, i've actually seen some ads where people were talking and it looked like them, sounded like them. You know, for all intents and purposes, if you didn't know any better, you would think it was them and I think that can be dangerous. But like anything, you know, i think we're half. You know we have to be discerning. I've seen some beautiful pictures and they haven't quite mastered People yet. I see but, I can see.

Speaker 2:

I Can see where, if they did master it, it would definitely like what. There's no need for a model. They can make beautiful people, you really can. And I think the scary thing is, though, you know, having someone you know like the president or dignitaries, and you're having them say some things that are Not real, and you know that could cause, yeah, some problems. But aside from that, i think I think it's really. It's amazing. Actually, it really is amazing, and I think, the more that we explore what it, you know the possibilities. Especially, you know we've had this you and I talked about.

Speaker 2:

I've talked about this often You know the workforce and You know when you're dealing with people, you're dealing with personalities and you're dealing with you know the ups and downs of the market right and then If you can have some artificial intelligence, come in here and do something You know have to deal with, you know people saying, well, you know, i'm not gonna do that, i'm just not gonna do it and you're at their mercy. So I it has the potential of Being amazing. Yeah, but a lot of people my age, i think until we have to like that's not a conversation that we have. Hey, what do you think about this new AI? We're trying to retire, be somewhere, or, you know kind of worried about some of the the political, you know uneasiness that that is happening right now.

Speaker 1:

And that's understandable, because I think that another thing to that too and that's not just age or person specific, not everybody just interested, you know, and I feel like if I could, i May see a lot of it and I might think that maybe 20, 30, 40 percent of people really, really care, but maybe that number is too high, like I don't know that. Even my conversations, a lot of them aren't about it, unless I'm talking to somebody who's really into it.

Speaker 1:

Laura, you know, it's not like I'm having AI conversation with random people throughout the day, and so I can kind of definitely see that, because I think a lot of things, laura. Until they affect your actual life, you don't really care about them as much. Yeah, you're right, like, until it has an effect on me.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, personally I don't really care. I'm kind of trying to handle business in other areas, other facets of my life. Now We brought up the working situation. I wonder how that does that? does that affect an aging workforce more than it affects like a younger workforce? when it comes to people kind of Getting out like of not wanting to deal with other, are they human beings? and when you know AI, it's gonna work 24 hours, seven days a week, no complaints, no days off, no vacation. You know what I mean? No, no, talk back. And even from a from an older standpoint, it might not be the person that's actually getting fired. It might be the person doing the firing because of AI, like You know it could fall both ways, right could fall both ways in a sense of like.

Speaker 1:

Well, if I have an aging demographic, because you know the the baby boomer demographic right there, right, that's an aging demographic and that's gonna be a massive, i'm not sure if all of them have left the workforce, but it's a good amount of them that are about to if they have not right, and that's massive for just The amount of jobs that are kind of coming out of the workforce as people look to kind of go sit on a beach somewhere Or chill and kind of hang out. Then I think maybe you have a situation there where you're not dealing with as much, where you can bring on AI then and and kind of blunt the impact of that. You think that's a possibility It becomes on soon enough anyway.

Speaker 2:

I think, yeah, i think so, and I think the more that we explore, like all of the possibilities, the more people will be talking about it, how it's going to affect them. I think, older the older generations, just like every older generation, you know you look at things differently. You may not want your food served to you by, you know, automation.

Speaker 2:

Yeah you know. But you have a younger generation that is so accustomed to that That they're going to, you know, you have little bitty kids now and they know what to do with phones Because that's what they were brought up on, like they, they know automatically, right. But um, an older generation still is gonna want that human touch, that human interaction. But eventually those people will, will die off and you have this whole generation that is that is, you know, very accustomed to robots and automation and no one human doing different things, whether it's banking or medicine or grocery stores, or you know what I'm saying People are saying. You know, we fall in line with things. We kick and scream, but eventually you learn to adapt to whatever is out there and whatever you know is present.

Speaker 1:

Does that make sense? Yeah, How has that been for you? How was that? Because you said that you're a person, that you're not necessarily adverse to technology, because you know some people are completely have more of a hostile take on it and technology? in general, like machines are taken over the world and stuff like that. you know How has that been for you Just having? you've always been like, just I'm just going to roll with the punches and whatever comes, kind of comes.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, pretty much. So I mean you. I can remember them making us wear seat belts. I can remember a time when you did not have to wear a seat belt And I remember when they said you're going to have to wear a seat belt, and I remember specifically and I'm embarrassed to say this I remember saying it's kind of wrinkle my clothes.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2:

I mean, forget the safety. I can't show up like this, right, right, if I have a wreck. You know, imagine that. But those, but you do it, you know and then you know. Of course now we know why, but you think about Walmart and how you know. Little by little, you saw less cash years.

Speaker 2:

Yeah man, and now the self-checkout is hit Like it's. The area is huge now in Walmart And no one seems to be there. Every now and then, you know, you'll see somebody that just has to go through the line. Like me, i don't know.

Speaker 1:

Have you been? when's the last time you've been through the line at Walmart yourself? Like had to go to a person.

Speaker 2:

I went. I went the other day. We had to get some things for my job And so I had to go through the line, because we're a nonprofit and I use a nonprofit card, so we don't pay taxes. So I had to go through the line And it was different. I was waiting, yes, and it's a nightmare.

Speaker 1:

It's a nightmare. now, i'm sorry, i would never. I would never go. I would never go to Walmart if I had to go to the line every time. Remember old school Walmart when people hated going in there for a book because of that reason, like the lines being so long that you avoided it all together And that self-checkout has changed my experience. I want to. I mean personally tell you that.

Speaker 2:

It's changed everyone. It's changed everyone. And imagine so you've got six self-checkouts I'm thinking of the grocery store and you've got now you just pay one person to watch everyone, instead of paying six people to check people out.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

So imagine for a grocery store like that's heaven.

Speaker 1:

For sure, for sure.

Speaker 2:

Wind, wind all the way around Wind, wind, weight loss And I think about my industry, like if it will affect my industry. I work with people, you know, people with disabilities, as a matter of fact, and so I think the human aspect is very important, especially for people with disabilities, like they need to feel that touch and see a smile and things like that. And so I wonder, though I mean definitely, you know, one of the things that we do is give meds, and it's not always an easy thing for somebody who's making $10, $11 an hour. They forget or they just throw out meds, which is extremely huge. Right, i mean, that's a life or death situation.

Speaker 2:

A machine is not going to make as many mistakes, and I would take a machine any day to give meds to my clients, as opposed to a person who's distracted or who's not in a good mood or who is forgetful or whatever you know on medicine. So I'm really looking forward to seeing what it's going to be like for professional, you know, for businesses, for people personally, for everything. I'm just really, i'm really. I hope I get to see, and I'm pretty sure that the way things are moving, that it's not going to take long for me to see.

Speaker 2:

God willing, I'll be here. It's not going to take me long to see just what can be done with AI.

Speaker 1:

I'm thinking here in the next year, the next two years, because you can think about how much more it's done in less than a year. So it's before me. I'm just going to chat to you and even a different iterations of chat to BT from each other are way different or way better than they are from each other. So if you think about all the learning that it's doing on every single day because of just people asking you questions or using it on a daily basis, making it smarter, then you have a situation that it's going to be so different year to year, laura, like it's going to be so much better a year from now and then it's going to be so much better a year from that, that I think the possibilities are endless. It's definitely one of the largest thing I've. I couldn't harp on it. I think I've done at least 10, 15 shows on it just this year because it's so amazing.

Speaker 1:

I don't feel like a lot of times, Laura, that we come across technology like this that is going to change how people do everything, And people are using it to write their dating profiles and they're getting a lot more pool than they were when they were writing their own. So that's one of the stuff I'm saying Yeah.

Speaker 2:

but then what happens when you write this amazing dating profile? and then someone's dating you and they're like what happened to this witty person? What happened to this intelligent person that I thought I was going to get, or this you know. You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1:

At some point you have to show up, at some point I'm going to crack up with you.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, you do. Yeah, you know what?

Speaker 1:

you think I do, laura. But you know, what's funny is, as you were saying, that I feel like that's what's happening to people. Anyway, people are already feeling like that, whether it's you taking creative angles with your photos, you saying, hey, you lying about your height, i'm throwing a couple of extra inches on there, making sure she hits me back. And then I got to show up to the date and hope she loves me.

Speaker 1:

There's a lot of that stuff that was already going on to a certain degree, even without AI, that I feel like it'll be perpetuated or be much more of the same. You know what I mean. It'll be the same. Or you know it even because we're talking about the dating aspect. Right, let's talk about the resume aspect, because a lot of people are using it to write their resumes. Same situation You're a rock star on your resume, right You're?

Speaker 2:

a rock star in that interview.

Speaker 1:

You get the person, the person that's working for you, and they're just average or maybe a little below in some areas, and leave me wanting that same person that you interviewed or that same resume that you read. That was so amazing. So I do feel like that there's going to probably perpetuate more of that stuff. You know what I mean? It's definitely. I don't think any of that stuff gets made better by AI. I think definitely AI is going to make you sound like more of a rock star. It's just imagine. And then the person still does have to show up and actually do the job or actually show up at the date and actually be that person. You know what I mean, but I do think it can help.

Speaker 1:

If you're just not good at writing profiles, if you're just not good at writing resumes and stuff like that, maybe it can help you in that way, but I do think that you're going to have to actually have the experience. Now, what do you think about the? because I think the biggest negative, in my opinion, is just going to be the repercussion for jobs. I think it's the biggest negative that's going to come with that.

Speaker 1:

If you don't have a job that is a that calls for you to actually be there, like, let's say, i can't have an AI roofer, right, an AI plumber, an AI person come through and like do my drywall. You know what I mean.

Speaker 1:

I think those jobs may be a little bit safer because you're going to need a human being to come and do it. Maybe they have AI to help run their business, but still they're going to have to show up and do the actual labor. So I think that those jobs are a lot safer than a lot of like. Let's say that you're a lawyer and all you do is work on contracts all day, or you're an accountant. I think AI can come for your job. I think it can, because you can probably do your job a lot quicker than you can do it.

Speaker 1:

What are your thoughts on that?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, thank you, i think you're right. I think you're right, um, and I certainly think that AI could do a better job than SCOTUS. So, um, you're going to have like nine judges.

Speaker 1:

You just wanted you had to get that one in there, didn't you?

Speaker 2:

I had to get that in there. I mean, ai couldn't do any worse, but I definitely think, um that there are going to be some jobs that you know I mean, but it's that has happened throughout time. Reggie and the the cotton gin, you know.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, man, there's always been something right that comes and just disrupts things.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, there's always and it does. It does for a while. Like you think about auto plants, you know, and you think about you.

Speaker 2:

Look at cities like um Detroit that are now ghost towns right, yeah, because these machines, um, you know, get away with their jobs. But, um, and so, while the machines are amazing and you ask any car, you know, company or whatever you know, was this great? Yeah, this technology was amazing. But then you ask, um, the workers and they're like, yeah, i lost my job, i lost my house, we had to move. And so I think those are the pitfalls, those are the great things and the very worst things that come with evolving and that come with anything, not just AI.

Speaker 2:

Ai just happens to be the big thing, right, we haven't had like this huge thing in a while. And so every now and then, every once in a while, our society comes up with this ah, you know whether it's the car that puts the horse and buggy out of commission, and so somebody loses and somebody wins big, and society wins big, but there's always some. What do you call it? Ah, what's the word that I'm looking for? You know, these are the. These are some of the pitfalls that happen when you're involved in technology. Collateral damage, thank you. Those are that collateral damage. And, yes, you're going to have a lot of collateral damage with AI, but when you think about, you know what it can do. You know, hopefully I'm thinking that the pros outweigh the cons, right.

Speaker 1:

Would you use AI to write your dating profile, Laura?

Speaker 2:

Then you have to think about it.

Speaker 1:

You can just put a few pictures up there. Laura, Throw some pictures up there. Let AI do the rest. You can just wait for the wait for the men to come in there, Less time spent.

Speaker 2:

You get the same situation, yeah.

Speaker 1:

I remember we talked about the face. Remember a while back ago, laura, when we were like we're talking about the. Facebook situation. I don't know if you were on there even five days, laura. You're like this is too overwhelming.

Speaker 2:

You're saying you're gay, right Right, it was too much So imagine an AI profile.

Speaker 1:

Man maybe roll it in, laura Roll it in.

Speaker 2:

Right, yeah, yeah, um sure, i'd use it to do whatever, as long as it didn't hurt anyone. Um, i don't want to be deceitful, but, um, you know I mean, and then what, how do you do the AI profile, like? do you tell them, do they ask these questions like okay, what's your age, what do you like? And then, based off of those answers, they write something. Or do they just write something, not knowing who you are, and it could be totally not representative of who you are.

Speaker 1:

I feel like it would have to be some questions, right, like there would have to be some kind of like prompt or something or otherwise this can write the same profile for every human being, like wouldn't even have to like have any deviation. If it's just writing you a human woman profile like, that's very, that's very vague, like. I feel like you would have to like narrow it down to something, right, like. So I feel like maybe, cause I haven't used it, maybe I should just go with that and do that on the show one day. I'm just gonna do that on the show show and just create an AI profile and just see what happens, see if see what happens there, cause it's interesting.

Speaker 1:

I don't really know, cause I've been out of dating game for a while, so I don't. I don't know exactly what that would be, but I do know that I would have used it to save me the time, absolutely Like if I could save time on that and I could just now just vet people, that kind of like. You know, cause it's different for guys and I feel like for a lot of women they're going to be inundated, no matter what they do, with just a lot of dudes.

Speaker 1:

Um, so they're going to be inundated with a lot of guys just hitting them up, versus, like a lot of guys, you gotta go more, like you gotta be more aggressive or more assertive. I should say not really aggressive, but you're more assertive, like you're going to go after. Go after a women more so, cause I mean, i looked at a friend of mine's, who's her? she, her profile had like a ton of just random dudes in it And she wasn't even trying hard, you know, and it had a ton of dudes in there. So I'm like they don't have time. I don't feel like a lot of women have time to do it, to sit there and just reach out to dudes all the time, even though I do respect that more. Um, but why would you if you?

Speaker 1:

got like a hundred dudes in your inbox already. Like well, you can just spend all your time just going through your inbox, you know. So I think that it would have to have some kind of prompts for what you like, what your interests are right. Because, you, even if it's going to be like a matching, and a lot of these companies are on top of that. They might be using AI to even do the matches.

Speaker 1:

So, you have AI that you might use to build your profile. The company itself might be using AI to kind of do like a match making type situation. You know what I mean. So you got AI all over the place.

Speaker 2:

Well, i was just going to say that, like why can't AI find my person too? Like, if you're so intelligent, fine, you know what I like. So I'm my person for me, yo. Laura.

Speaker 1:

I think that's possible.

Speaker 1:

Hello Laura, I think that's absolutely possible, right Cause? think about it like this, laura If AI can replace, like somebody writing some lawyer writing up some massive contract for some company, right, and if AI can do that in seconds, then it should be able to look at some matchmaking possibilities. In my opinion, like I don't see why it wouldn't be like it's intelligent enough to do that first thing, but not intelligent enough to do that second thing. Of course the people have to meet, right? So the course that people have to meet, actually like each other, actually be able to jail, have conversation, all that stuff. Still, of course, you would definitely need all that and that AI can't do that part. But AI, can AI give me like 10 suitors who are my type? Why not? Why not? Why can't I get a small group of people?

Speaker 2:

That, i think, would be great.

Speaker 1:

Matchmaking situation right.

Speaker 2:

Like an AI matchmaker, because that would be the most difficult part. It really is. I mean, you're looking through. that was the most difficult part for me. Looking through everything and saying, okay, am I making the right choice? Like, how do I know that? you know what I'm saying? That really was the difficult part. It's not difficult to put your profile and put those things. It's difficult to say, gosh, i don't want to base it on how he looks, or he looks like, he doesn't, like he's not spontaneous, but he really may be.

Speaker 2:

So yeah, that would be awesome, really awesome I think a lot of companies.

Speaker 1:

I could see that all day, laura. Yes, i could see it, man, and some companies may already be doing that, but I can. Why not? Why not What all the other stuff is doing? It's like passing. The AI is passing the bar. It's passing like physician test Why? could it not be a matchmaker Like it seems like, from an intelligence standpoint, that's lower on the scale than like going and passing the bar or doing some of that other stuff that AI has already been doing. Why not? Yeah, why not? Maybe maybe somebody's already done that.

Speaker 2:

And why not? Can't do it Like, yeah, yeah, like I'm interviewing for a receptionist and I'm like how do I know I'm picking the right person? Like they're all amazing. I could get AI to like do the random you know what is really needed and how are they going to fit into the culture? and will they? you know, do they have what it takes to? that would be awesome.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, cause I think that you could do that as like a filter right Like, if nothing else, filter out applicants for me Yeah. Just filter out some applicants for me See who's best from a statistical standpoint.

Speaker 1:

Fits, fits what I'm looking for, um, and then you know what I feel like. That's what a lot of the legwork that AI is going to do. That's a lot of the legwork AI is going to do for you. It'll have like, if I don't have to like a lot of times, if you're looking for, let's just say something as simple as this podcast, and I'm going to look at some hashtags for this podcast, like what kind of what are the best hashtags? I can just literally type in the AI and have it pop them out.

Speaker 1:

I don't have to try to do a ton of research. I don't need to go read now into researching podcasts, or you don't have to now hope that you can. You could just put in a few things about your company culture, what you're looking for, a few prompts for the kind of specific person that you're looking for, and then maybe get some suggestions on the best way to go about that hiring process and cut some time out of the processes which I think, ultimately, ai would do. I think AI, the biggest thing it would do for humanity, in my opinion, is give it back some time in its every day, doing it to every day.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you know what I mean, wouldn't that be awesome? But also think about it this way, reggie What if AI? you know you used AI to get all of your podcast people and what did they just like? totally skipped over me, like you see what I'm saying. You would have totally missed out on me.

Speaker 1:

It's a possibility right. That's the collateral damage, right, that's the collateral damage that could be, and sometimes yeah. Well, you're gonna say finish that statement and I'm gonna Yeah, that's it.

Speaker 2:

I was just gonna say. You know, sometimes it really is important to have that human touch, like sometimes you know you really need that, but I could definitely see how it would aid Absolutely.

Speaker 1:

I agree with that, because I was gonna say that's the same situation, kind of going back if we're doing the dating situation. But isn't that in general, though, cause? let's think about it like this, laura, we were just talking about the situation with receptionist.

Speaker 1:

Right, You're already thinking that without AI, without AI, you're thinking that already. Right, We're all kind of like a human condition and all kind of second guess ourselves. To a certain degree, We make certain decisions, right? Like we're already thinking of like, well, if I'm dating this person, the person that's supposed to be spending the rest of my life with, is just, I'm just have less time with that person. They're just out there somewhere And but I'm here, that dream job that I want.

Speaker 1:

It's out there somewhere, but I'm working this other job. You know Like I feel like we would always second guess ourselves as to like, what it could miss out on, like, or what we could be missing out on, even as we make our own decisions, right. This is true, yes, absolutely, and maybe we'll have more answers to this here down the line, because I know this is not our last AI show. We'll do some more AI shows. Definitely appreciate you taking some time out here, as always, laura, absolutely.

Speaker 2:

It is always a pleasure, Reggie. This is Reggie and ATL.

Speaker 1:

Check us out. Stay dry, heart radio, google Podcasts, apple Podcasts, spotify wherever you find your podcast. See you next time.

AI Impact on Aging Population Adoption
AI's Impact on Aging Workforce
The Impact of Self-Checkout and AI
AI's Impact on Dating and Jobs
AI as a Matchmaker
Future AI Shows