Why Fighting For Seniors Became My Mission

My journey started in the fall of 10th grade, when I conducted an independent research paper titled "How AI Growth Empowers the Financial Scam Crisis." The research revealed how disproportionately seniors are victimized, and I couldn't stop thinking about the people behind the numbers. I often thought of my grandma, who once asked if a video of a pomeranian dog performing Olympic dives into a pool was real or AI-generated. Even after I explained multiple times that it was fake, she remained uncertain. Moments like this made me realize how easily older generations can be deceived by AI content.

Not long after, I came across another example that reinforced my concern. While browsing my YouTube feed, I paused on a video that looked off at first glance. The anti-aliasing on the edges seemed uncanny, the speech pace was inhuman, and the account profile was unverified. It was a video of Elon Musk announcing a cryptocurrency giveaway, except it wasn't really him. I recognized the video as an AI-deepfake scam that seemed too good to be true. When I checked the comments, I saw dozens of commenters asking how to participate and claim their free money, and in the replies, the fraudulent creator was redirecting them to a sketchy site.

I didn't expect to see the real-life consequences of that deception until I volunteered at a local senior safety seminar. In the audience, a daughter sat beside her elderly mother, who seemed detached and uninterested in the lecture on scam prevention. After the event concluded, I overheard the daughter explaining to the speaker that her mother had fallen for the same "Elon Musk" scam. The older woman truly believed she would receive a free Tesla and was reluctant to think otherwise. It illustrated that behind every statistic lies a story, a story of confusion, loss, and misplaced trust.

The fight against scams is vital because it has pushed me to think bigger. I'd been treating symptoms, not the root causes. I didn't put enough emphasis on the "Why." This challenge sparked an innovative approach: combining education, detection, and community support into one free platform. By making scams less profitable for criminals while making verification more accessible for seniors. SasoGPT can shift the equilibrium towards United Nation's Sustainable Development Goal 16, "Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions," ensuring our grandparents live "free from fear and feel secure" in their daily lives, protected by AI technology now redesigned to empower them rather than exploit them.