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Becoming an AI Coach happened at just the right time for Tiffany Garrard, who
was going through a transition after 30-plus years with the County of Los
Angeles. Something clicked when she heard about artificial intelligence (AI).
“I found out about it through AI Innovators. It’s a group of Black women who
started giving summits on AI. I’ve always been interested in tech and I thought
this was revolutionary.”
Garrard went “all in,” took classes, and carved out a niche audience—people 50
and over. Her passion is teaching people how AI can be used in their daily lives.
“So many people in our community are scared of AI,” she said. “My job is to
translate it in a way that’s relatable.
Like many people, young and old, there is the fear that AI will take over their jobs
and also the fear of being scammed. “Technology is so good sometimes that you
don’t know,” she said.
Garrard advises her students—especially older ones—to be extra cautious about
giving out personal information because you don’t know if the person on the
phone or online is real.
“If you’re unsure whether you should sign something, ask a younger person or
someone tech-savvy for help. There used to be a time we could listen to news
and pretty much trust it. But, with social media and AI, people are doing all kinds
of things in politics, entertainment, etc.”
AI-generated images are looking more real these days. Garrard cautions people
to look at the background around the image. AI is not perfect. If you look closely,
you can see imperfections in the picture.
So, how does an AI expert use AI in her personal life?
“For my son. I use it to help tutor him in math. A lot of the math, I don’t really
understand. With my daughter, I use it to help us plan time together, to plan a
nice day trip. With my mom, it helps me create meal plans for her diet. For my
business, I use it to create social media content and grant writing.
Garrard recommends ChatGPT, Perplexity (a good conversational AI tool), Claude
and Google Gemini.
If you’re fearful about AI sharing your personal information, you can use the
setting to turn off the memory so it won’t memorize your information.
“We’re still spunky. We need to know how to use these tools. One of my
students is an 80-year-old woman who wants to use it to create her own book.
Another elderly woman sews, and I’m helping her start a class teaching other
people. Instead of being afraid of AI, we can use AI to create money.”
Garrard will teach free AI classes on Zoom every Monday in May at 6:00pm. The
class is free, but registration is required. To join the next class, sign up on
https://zoom.com, Meeting ID: 819 7443 1767, Passcode: 33639
Learn more about TheAIChic on all social media platforms and on her Facebook
Community page, “AI experience: 50 and beyond.”
