Ryan Wolff, senior consultant of AI and strategic innovation at AAFCPAs, spoke with the Swampscott Senior Center audience Thursday, answering residents’ questions and concerns about artificial intelligence and how it may affect their daily lives.

Artificial intelligence, or AI, refers to technology that enables computers and machines to simulate human thinking, including learning, problem-solving and pattern recognition. The technology can analyze large datasets, generate content and carry out programmed tasks. While tools like ChatGPT and Gemini are among the most widely known, Wolff noted there are many others.

“AI is relatively new technology as far as how popular it is, but the concept behind it is not new,” Wolff said. “It’s been around for a while. It just has not been as widely available as it is right now. It’s basically just a very challenging computer and can search a lot of information really, really quickly to turn that information around to you into something that will make sense.”

Wolff told the audience that AI is already being used in ways many people may not realize.

“There’s a very good chance that your tax return will probably be reviewed by AI,” Wolff said.

He explained that the technology can scan documents at a high level to identify potential red flags. Beyond financial uses, AI can also help with everyday tasks, from suggesting meals based on what’s in a refrigerator to summarizing multiple articles in seconds.

The audience raised questions about AI’s ability to take over the job industry.

“There’s obviously a lot of jobs that require humans to do them: construction, nursing, a lot of those in person physical jobs. You’re not going to have AI take those away,” Wolff said. “The jobs that it is coming for are really those low-level ones. You already have self-checkout at grocery stores. If you go to Fenway Park, they have something where you can put a beer down and it just takes a picture of it. It knows what it is and charges.”

Wolff said AI will shift the job world but that the “professional type settings” will remain the same. Those jobs might just embrace AI to take less time on tasks.

Residents also raised concerns about AI’s growing presence in education.

Wolff said some educators are beginning to embrace the technology rather than ban it. He described a college professor who allows students to use AI for research but requires them to submit the prompts and responses they used.

“I’ve seen a few different perspectives of it. The most effective, I think I’ve seen, is a college professor encouraging his students to use AI, to go out and do all the research, to come up with what they were going to use on that paper,” Wolff said. “The catch was they had to submit all of the prompts and all of the responses that they used to get it. Because, at the end of the day, if you don’t understand the concept you don’t know what questions to ask to get that deeper level of knowledge that actually shows that you understand whatever you’re talking about.”

While AI can streamline research by quickly summarizing multiple sources, Wolff stressed that critical thinking remains essential. Students, he said, should be encouraged to explain their reasoning and not rely on AI as their sole source of information.

“I think banning it is a bad way to go because it is the future,” Wolff said, “but there need to be some kind of guidelines around it.”

In the Swampscott Public Schools, the district is developing its first comprehensive AI policy, aimed at balancing innovation with academic integrity, student privacy and classroom equity. While the district is not outright banning AI, it is training teachers to understand how AI works, how students use it, and how to adapt assignments so learning can’t be outsourced to algorithms.

Wolff also highlighted some of the risks associated with AI.

“I’m very positive on kind of where it’s trending and what it’s going to do, but there are always risks that associate itself in the background of any sort of technology,” Wolff said.

Wolff warned that scammers are using AI “to be much more creative about how they do things.”

“If you’re using AI to come up with a scam email or scam text message, it’s very easy to make that look very, very legitimate, and it’s going to raise the chance of clicking on that link,” Wolff said. “Always be cautious.”