“Artificial Intelligence - Carrying us into the Future”: A Study of Older Adults’ Perceptions of LLM-Based Chatbots

With the integration of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools in our society, and past research demonstrating ageism embedded in existing AI tools, there is a pressing need to understand the perceptions and adoption factors of older adults towards generative AI tools to inform future research and development of age inclusive AI tools. Through 20 contextual interviews with older adults, we investigated participants’ perceptions towards OpenAI’s ChatGPT, a Large Language Model (LLM)-based chatbot. Findings from this study uncover participants’ folk theories, their comparison of LLM-based chatbots to search engines, their perspectives on common applications of chatbots for older adults, and the factors that influence their adoption of LLM-based chatbots. Taken together, this work lays the groundwork for future research and development of LLM-based chatbots that consider age inclusivity, taking a step towards addressing AI ageism.