When new technologies emerge—from CDs to the internet to mobile phones—the familiar pattern has been that young people are the earliest and most enthusiastic adopters. With AI, only half that pattern is holding. This year, for the first time, a majority (55 percent) of American adults under 30 told the Pew Research Center they are more concerned than excited about artificial intelligence.
In 2021, that figure was 31 percent. Over the same period, the share who are more excited than concerned fell from 25 percent to 11 percent. It’s not that young people aren’t using AI—66 percent of adults under 30 have used a chatbot, and 31 percent use one daily, according to Pew—the problem is that the longer and more they use it, the less they like it.
Bhasin, who is also an OpenAI ChatGPT Futures honoree and was featured in Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in 2026, said youth antipathy to AI is driven by fears of its impact on their present and future, from deepfakes to job losses. Nikolas Guggenberger, an assistant professor of law at the University of Houston Law Center who focuses on law & technology, privacy and regulation, said the perception of AI among young people has “cratered” in the nearly four years since ChatGPT hit the market. A Gallup poll fielded earlier this year found that half of Gen Z (born between 1997 and 2012) use generative AI weekly or daily, roughly unchanged from a year earlier.
But everything else in their survey moved: Excitement fell to 22 percent, down 14 points. Anger rose nine points to 31 percent. The share saying AI’s risks outweigh its benefits in the workplace climbed from 37 percent to 48 percent and 80 percent said they worry about AI hindering their ability to learn.
While familiarity with new technologies has often been the path to acceptance, with AI and young people, it’s producing hostility. Those views are already hardening into policy preferences. In an August poll of adults aged 18 to 34 published by CNBC/Generation Labs, 60 percent said data center construction should slow down, 40 percent said the government should regulate AI and 45 percent expected AI to hurt their own careers.
Millennials view the issue of AI differently from their Gen Z peers. In the Pew survey, 48 percent of adults under 30 said they expect AI to have a negative effect on society, compared with 39 percent of those aged 30 to 49, even though both groups use chatbots at similar rates. Author and generational futurist Ryan Vet attributes part of this split to the way millennials experienced quick changes.
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