Dear Kevin Frazier: Come On My Podcast

Recording from a little apartment in Pienza, Italy, host Ginny Deerin reads an open letter — out loud, on air — to Kevin Frazier, the law professor who wrote “Your grandma should be using AI” for Fortune magazine. She agrees with a lot of it. She has a few thoughts about the rest. And she has an invitation.

Also in this episode: Apple is planning to let iPhone users choose their own AI this fall — whether that’s Claude, Gemini, or sticking with Apple’s own. Ginny explains why more competition is actually great news for the 65+ crowd.

Two recommendations this week: why Ginny is building a life timeline with AI’s help while traveling in Italy with her siblings — and AllTrails, the hiking app that put her in the middle of a Tuscany wheat field she never would have found on her own.

SHOW LINKS:

Fortune article by Kevin Frazier: https://fortune.com/2026/05/13/ai-elderly-seniors-policy-waymo-elliq-loneliness-gap/

AllTrails: https://www.alltrails.com

Apple iOS 27 AI story (TechCrunch): https://techcrunch.com/2026/05/05/apple-plans-to-make-ios-27-a-choose-your-own-adventure-of-ai-models/

CHAPTERS

00:00 Welcome From Tuscany
00:22 iPhone AI Choice Coming
02:05 Why It Matters Seniors
02:57 Fortune Article Setup
03:37 Letter From Pienza
05:18 Where I Push Back
06:04 ElliQ And Real Needs
06:30 Invitation To Kevin
07:27 Recommendations And Links
07:39 Build Your Life Timeline
09:15 Wrap Up And Safety

aiGED: AI for the 65+ crowd

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Agent Podcast, the one, the only podcast that is all about AI for the 65 Plus Crowd. I'm your host, Jenny Deeran, and if you are a regular listener, you know I'm in Tuscany, Italy for almost a month. So I'm recording this abbreviated podcast episode from the road. Although I haven't been paying much attention to the news, thank God, there is one story I'd like to mention. It's for anyone who has an iPhone, which I'm guessing is most of you. Apple is reportedly planning a significant change to iOS 27. That's the iPhone software update coming this fall. A major update on your phone in lots of ways. But right now, when you use Siri or Apple's writing tools, in other words, Apple's own AI is doing all the work on your iPhone. Under the new plan, you would be able to go to your settings and choose a different AI entirely. So if you like Google's Gemini or Anthropics Claude or whatever AI platform you're using, you can easily use that on your iPhone after this new update in the fall. Or if you want, you can just stick with Apple's own AI, your call, obviously. TechCrunch called it, quote, choose your own adventure for AI models. And I think that's exactly right. The idea is that Apple Intelligence stays on your phone, your computers for the private sort of on-device stuff, but for bigger tasks, for other tasks that you're not concerned about security as much, tasks like writing and research and creative projects. You can pick whichever AI you trust most and whichever AI feels right to you. Here's why I think this matters for our crowd specifically. A lot of us picked up AI through one tool or platform. Maybe it was Siri. For me, it was ChatGPT, maybe it was Claude. And we stuck with it because switching felt complicated. It's a little bit like switching phone carriers. It just, oh, that's so much trouble. Although I switched a few months back from ChatGPT to Claude, and it wasn't much trouble at all. But no matter, Apple's going to make this a lot easier. This change that Apple plans again to make this fall means that your iPhone will make it easier to give another AI a try, and that's a good thing. More competition, more choice, and frankly, these companies are going to have to work harder to earn our loyalty. And that's a good thing. So stay tuned this fall. Now my main topic for this episode is a reaction to a piece published earlier this month in Fortune magazine. And I'm delivering my reaction in the form of a letter to the author. His name is Kevin Frasier. He runs the AI Innovation and Law Program at the University of Texas School of Law. The piece he wrote is called Your Grandma Should Be Using AI. Really? Your grandma should be using AI. Really? Not surprisingly, this opinion piece got my attention, and here's my letter to Mr. Frazier. Dear Mr. Frazier, I'm writing this from a little apartment in Pienza, Italy, one of the most spectacular little hill towns in Tuscany. I've been here for almost a month traveling with family, and I've been using AI every single day. To find hiking trails through wheat fields, to translate menus, to figure out what a medieval church tower was built for. I'm 75 years old and I am one of the people you wrote about in your piece for Fortune magazine. The piece called Your Grandma Should Be Using AI. Really? After reading the piece a couple of times, I thought Kevin Fraser gets it. And also, he should come on my podcast. I host Aged. It's the only podcast made specifically for people 65 and older and who want to understand AI without being talked down to. I started it because I kept noticing that almost every conversation about AI was happening over our heads or around us or about us, but almost never with us, which is exactly what you named in your piece. The statistics you cited, half the silent generation, nearly 40% of boomers, have never touched AI. And my reality supports these numbers that you cite. And I agree with your read on why so many of us shy away. It's not stubbornness, it's that nobody has shown us what's actually in it for us. This is exactly why I created the Agent Podcast. Here's where I'd push back a little bit on your article, though I say this with great respect, of course. Your solutions, in my opinion, are big and slow. They're regulatory sandboxes of one of your suggestions, expanding the driverless car Waymo program. These are policy levers that take years if they happen at all. I understand policy is your lane, and you're writing to policymakers and innovators to a large extent. But I keep thinking about the woman who needs a ride to dialysis next Tuesday in a county Waymill will never serve. What does she do while we wait? The LEQ section genuinely moved me. We've talked about it on this podcast before. Nine in ten users felt less lonely after interacting with the LEQ robot. That's not nothing. That's everything to the folks who get loneliness relief from these LEQ robots. But how do we get these robots to all those who just don't have anyone in their lives? I'd love to have a conversation with you about how policy and real-time use of AI for good can align. So, on behalf of the thousands of my listeners, I invite you, Mr. Frasier, to come on the Aged Podcast. One hour, your ideas, my audience, and a great conversation that goes places that a fortune op-ed can't. My listeners are exactly the people you want to reach, and they are ready to be reached. I hope through my listener network you might hear this read-aloud letter. And I'll get my AI Claude to help me find ways to get my invitation in front of you. As for getting in touch with me, please just leave a comment or message me through LinkedIn or other social media. Looking forward to it. Sincerely, Ginny Dearan. Well, let's hope we hear from Mr. Frasier. But for now, let's get into my recommendations. My first recommendation is for you to read the article written by Kevin Fraser. I'll put a link in the show notes. My second recommendation has to do with something I've been doing on my vacation in Italy. Since I'm spending so much time with three of my four siblings, we're spending almost a month together in Italy, believe it or not, and we're still alive. I thought it would be a good time for me to create a timeline of my life. That may sound crazy, but I have lived so many places. I've had so many jobs, had been involved with so many community and political endeavors. And then there is all the really important stuff like getting married and having kids, etc., etc. And my memory is spotty at best. So I decided to put my timeline down in writing right here on our vacation in Italy. I work from it from time to time, just a simple list with dates. I'd say um 80% complete, thanks to my siblings who've been able to help me piece my life together. And AI has been a huge help. It helped me figure out what I bought when I bought various houses, when my kids graduated from high school and college, when important people in my life passed away. When I get to closer to 100% of my life events noted, I'll ask Claude to help me find discrepancies and organize it in an easy-to-read format. I highly recommend you consider creating your own timeline, unless, of course, you've already done it. Since this is an abbreviated episode, we'll skip homework and move right into our wrap because I'm about to go explore the monastery of Saint Anna near Pienza, where we're staying. You may have never heard of it by name, but many of you have seen it. It was the filming location for the Italy portion of the award-winning and ex award-winning, the award-winning and beautiful film, The English Patient. In doing my research with Claude, I went way down into an interesting rabbit hole about World War I in Tuscany. It was really interesting. Anywho, I'm about to leave on our field trip, so I'll just remind us all that AI can be both helpful and hazardous. We live on the helpful side at Agent, but be sure to protect your info, double check advice, and trust your judgment. Thanks for listening and for the grace you give me during my month long travel in Italy. Remember, it's never too late to learn something new, especially something that might make life easier and especially more fun. Ciao.