On August 18, OpenAI announced ChatGPT for Teens, a version of its chatbot with stronger safety protections, parental controls, and more age-appropriate responses.
The product reflects a growing recognition that different populations may need different kinds of AI experiences, particularly when it comes to sensitive subjects and digital literacy (though it remains unclear how effective such controls will ultimately be).
Teens aren’t the ones who might benefit from an AI experience designed with their particular needs in mind. What about older adults?
Indeed, despite tired stereotypes that people over 65 aren’t as tech literate as their younger peers, many in these communities are using AI chatbots—and the number is growing.
Earlier this year, the Pew Research Center found that 23% of more than 5,000 surveyed adults ages 65 and up use ChatGPT, compared to just 10% the year prior. One survey, not yet peer-reviewed, found that 63% of older adults had used ChatGPT for medical advice.
AARP is cheering them on, too, recommending ChatGPT for companionship and mental stimulation. The organization’s own internal survey found that the number of people over 50 using AI grew from 18% in 2024 to 30% in 2025, Business Insider reported.
Even my father, an ambivalent member of the Silent Generation, has become somewhat of an AI power user. Need consultation on a surgeon in the area who specializes in an exact niche procedure? *Consult Chat. *Overenthusiastic about the prospect of one day becoming a grandparent and now building a database of a thousand-plus daycares? An easy task for Chat.
Emails from my dad and other septuagenarian relatives increasingly contain links that appear to have been surfaced by ChatGPT rather than Google. For some older users, Chat is starting to look a lot like the new search bar.
There are already smartphones for seniors and AI robots for seniors—why not ChatGPT for seniors, too? Given that they’re a particularly vulnerable population, perhaps older people should also have access to AI installed with guardrails.
Consider that there are plenty of unique dynamics for older users. Many seem to be leapfrogging some platforms and moving straight to systems like Claude and ChatGPT. And for good reason: AI chatbots allow people to easily text and talk directly to technology. Boomers and even older users are also likely to communicate with these systems about sensitive issues, including their intimate health details and retirement planning.
Meanwhile, they’re also losing billions of dollars to online fraud and AI-enabled scams. Little wonder, then, that a handful of Democrats wrote earlier this year to tech giants like OpenAI about implementing safeguards for older users.
The point here isn’t to say ChatGPT should actually build a product geared toward older users, but to highlight that young people are far from the only vulnerable group using ChatGPT. Indeed, we’re all susceptible to some of AI’s greatest risks, including bringing too much credulity—and assigning too much authority—to the technology. People of all age groups can form inappropriate, dependent relationships with chatbots that take them down emotional and dangerous rabbit holes.
There’s a natural tension between a libertarian approach to technology and a more paternalistic one. The question is whether we believe companies are in the best position to build guardrails and then target them to different populations, based on their own estimations, or to leave people themselves to decide how AI should—or shouldn’t—work for them.
In the meantime, we’re all going to be wrestling with how to talk to our older friends and family about AI, and maybe even wrestling it from their hands. Good luck to us!