As AI reshapes daily life, Pittsburgh groups teach residents when to trust it — and when to walk away
On an ordinary workday, Weylin Gomez’s phone rang with news that would redirect his career. His elderly relatives had just lost $10,000 in a cryptocurrency scam, and they were calling him in desperation, hoping he could somehow recover the money. Gomez, a 30-year-old IT manager from Washington, Pa., knew enough about online fraud to understand the likely answer, but he still struggled to say it aloud. “The first thing they asked me was ‘Can we get the money back?’ I didn’t really know what to tell them. I didn’t understand the full scope, but I knew enough to say ‘probably not,’” he recalled. That painful conversation planted a seed. Gomez began developing a business focused on protecting seniors from online scams and AI-generated deepfakes, and he soon realized he needed a stronger grasp of the very technology that was being used to deceive vulnerable people. His search for knowledge led him to a two-hour introduction to artificial intelligence workshop offered by Literacy Pittsburgh, where he joined a handful of residents with their own reasons for being there. Three participants said they wanted to learn how AI could help them apply for jobs; two wanted to become better at separating real information from fabricated content online. Though their ages and backgrounds varied, they shared a recognition that AI is increasingly shaping daily life and a desire to understand how to use it without being misled by it. “In order to help assist the individuals that I’m working with for my business, I wanted to get a better understanding of where the general information was,” Gomez said.
The workshop Gomez attended was not a dry technology demonstration, but a deliberately practical and cautious introduction to a tool that has rapidly entered everything from job applications to recipe searches. Led by Alev Kerenciler, an instructor at Literacy Pittsburgh, the session was part of a new AI literacy curriculum developed by PittCyber and introduced in June. The curriculum covers potential uses of AI as well as its limitations and risks, and it is now being used by organizations in Pittsburgh, across Pennsylvania and elsewhere in the country. Kerenciler works with students from a range of backgrounds, including recent immigrants who are learning how AI might assist them in applying for jobs. Her aim, she told participants, is not to have AI produce a resume or cover letter for them, but to teach them how to ask useful questions and evaluate the answers. During the workshop, she demonstrated how participants could use AI to find healthy recipes or plan a trip. She also warned them against relying on a chatbot as a companion or a mental health professional. Throughout the session, Kerenciler walked a careful line between showing where AI might be genuinely helpful and where it could cause harm. “Everybody can use AI,” she said, but she cautioned participants to approach it as a limited tool, not a solution for every situation. The two-hour format allowed time for questions and conversation, and many attendees left with a clearer sense of how to spot AI-generated misinformation, why chatbots sometimes produce confidently wrong answers, and why sensitive personal information should never be shared carelessly. For residents who are encountering AI in everyday tools like search engines, social media and customer service, the class offered a rare opportunity to slow down and examine what is happening behind the screen.
The curriculum behind the workshop was built with a larger mission in mind: giving people basic skills and vocabulary for understanding a technology that can otherwise feel intimidating. Elise Silva, director of policy research at PittCyber, said that sense of intimidation is a barrier to participation in an increasingly digital society. “It can be scary unless you have some basic skills and some basic vocabulary to work with, and then it becomes a little bit less scary if you feel like you can talk about it,” Silva said. “So … it’s an issue of being informed, it’s an issue of power at the end of the day.” Silva acknowledged that AI companies including Anthropic and OpenAI offer their own educational resources, but she argued that public institutions and community organizations have an important role to play because residents are looking for sources they can trust. “What individuals and communities are looking for is somebody that they can trust. And they’re not sure right now if they can trust big tech,” she said. To develop the curriculum, Silva and her colleagues consulted community organizations about what residents actually needed to know. The resulting material was designed for use across generations, from preteens to seniors, and it is now reaching organizations across Pennsylvania, including the Pennsylvania Library Association. The Henry L. Hillman Foundation helped fund its development, and Alexandra Taylor, a program officer at the foundation, said the project was deliberately designed for people of different ages and levels of technological experience. Silva said expanding access to emerging technologies is not enough on its own; people also need the skills to use those technologies safely, responsibly and with an understanding of their limits. She framed the project as part of PittCyber’s broader interest in cultivating what she called “civic resilience” among people of diverse backgrounds and experiences, helping them not only survive a changing world but understand and shape it.
While PittCyber’s curriculum targets adults and community learners, other Pittsburgh-area organizations are working to ensure that AI skills are not limited to people who already have access to new technology. STEM Coding Lab is developing an AI fluency curriculum for students in kindergarten through eighth grade, with plans to offer it in school districts including Sto-Rox, Duquesne City and Clairton. Jason Hivner, the organization’s director of program development, said AI is already part of children’s lives whether they ask for it or not. “It is part of their life already, whether they ask for it or don’t ask for it,” he said. Younger students will begin with foundational concepts such as pattern recognition, while older students will learn about generative AI and how it can produce text, images and other content. Hivner said the goal is to prepare students for a workforce in which AI is likely to play a growing role, while also giving them the critical thinking skills needed to evaluate what AI-generated tools tell them. This summer, the organization hosted a camp for middle school students that included a lesson on AI and machine learning. A guest speaker discussed how they use AI in their professional work, and students developed ideas for a “future-ready city park” that included an AI-connected component, such as using machine learning to recognize crowds in the park. The exercise was designed to be both imaginative and grounded, showing students that AI can be a tool for solving real-world problems rather than a mysterious force. STEM Coding Lab is seeking state and foundation support so it can offer its programs at little or no cost to families, recognizing that schools and community programs may be the only places where many children encounter structured AI education. By starting early, the organization hopes to reduce the gap between those who understand AI and those who only experience it passively.
Beyond classrooms and workshops, the need for AI literacy is being felt in everyday decisions in ways that can have serious financial and personal consequences. Ada Perlman, a technology entrepreneur and Carnegie Mellon University professor, described AI as a potentially powerful tool for expanding access to information and helping people make decisions. Teaching AI alongside fundamental life skills, he said, could help people better understand financial responsibility, navigate complex processes and explore subjects they may not encounter in school. For example, AI tools could help a person compare mortgage options, draft a letter to a landlord, or explain a confusing medical bill. But Perlman and others also stressed that AI is not a substitute for human judgment, especially when it comes to matters of trust, money and emotional well-being. For residents encountering AI in job applications, online scams or everyday searches, the first step may be more basic: finding a trusted place to ask questions. Jennifer Blatz, program director for the Greater Pittsburgh Digital Inclusion Alliance, said libraries, nonprofits and other community institutions can help people navigate a technological landscape that is changing faster than many residents can follow. “If there isn’t some trusted partner like a library or a nonprofit or some kind of community anchor institution to help coach them through these processes, it’s just the wild west,” Blatz said. Her comments reflect a growing recognition among educators, policymakers and community leaders that AI literacy is not just a technical skill, but a new kind of civic necessity. Without trusted institutions to translate what AI can and cannot do, residents may find themselves defenseless against sophisticated scams, misleading content and automated systems that are designed to be persuasive rather than accurate. Programs like those at Literacy Pittsburgh, STEM Coding Lab and the Carnegie Library are part of a broader effort to make sure no one is left behind.
Looking ahead, Pittsburgh residents will have additional opportunities to build their AI skills through free public programs. Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh has scheduled a series of sessions, including “AI Basics” on Sept. 15, an introduction to artificial intelligence and its everyday uses; “Writing Effective Prompts for AI” on Sept. 29, which teaches participants how to write clearer, more useful instructions for AI tools; and “Researching with AI” on Oct. 6, which explores how AI tools can be used in research. Carnegie Mellon University’s AI Institute for Societal Decision Making is also offering resources and information for community members. These offerings reflect a larger effort by local institutions to make AI education accessible to everyone, regardless of age, income or background. For Weylin Gomez, the journey from a costly family scam to a community AI workshop has been personal as well as professional. He knows he cannot undo the loss his relatives experienced, but he is determined to help other families avoid the same pain. By learning more about AI himself, and by planning to share that knowledge through his business, he is becoming part of a response that has taken shape across Pittsburgh: not waiting for technology companies to explain their products, but building local, trusted spaces where people can learn together. The challenges posed by AI are real, from deepfakes and scams to job displacement and misinformation. But the workshops, curricula and community partnerships emerging in Pittsburgh show that residents and institutions are not simply passive observers. They are asking hard questions, demanding transparency and learning how to make AI work for them rather than against them. In the end, as Silva put it, the issue is one of power. And power, in this new technological moment, begins with understanding.
