The “AI-native” generation that leading companies are counting on is souring on the technology.
A higher share of adults under 30 are “more concerned than excited” about AI than vice versa, according to a Pew Research Center survey. While Pew reports that overall concern is up, this is the first time a majority of young adults have reported they’re “more concerned than excited” since it began asking the question in 2021.
The findings illustrate that betting on an AI-native generation might prove to be more complicated than initially thought.
Leaders of Figma, Reddit, Sierra, and other companies have remarked about how hiring younger employees gives them access to workers who have learned the fundamentals alongside AI tools.
“The kids coming out of college right now learned how to program with AI. They’re really good at it, so I think we will go heavy on new grads because they’re so much more AI native,” Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said in March.
In February, a similar Pew survey found that adults aged 18 to 29 were the largest users of AI chatbots such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Microsoft’s Copilot. Chatbots, which are powered by large language models, are not the only way people can use AI, but the survey illustrated just how much AI use had grown across all age demographics.
According to the Pew survey, more Americans (71%) also say that AI will lead to “fewer jobs” than they did two years ago (64%). Adults 18 to 29 are as likely to hold that view as adults 30 to 64, a change from when Pew asked that same question two years ago.
Concerns about job displacement continue to be one of the biggest clouds hanging over AI.
AI CEOs, including OpenAI’s Sam Altman, have said that their fears over widespread AI job displacement haven’t come to pass. Studies, including one recently published by Stanford researchers, have also found no widespread AI-related job displacement.
At the same time, some companies are citing AI as reasons for laying off workers. Business Insider has found that 17 companies, including Oracle, Cisco, IBM, and Uber, have cited AI as a factor in their layoff decisions.
The Pew Research Center data is based on the organization’s American Trends Panel, a nationally representative panel of randomly selected U.S. adults. A total of 4,069 panelists were initially selected, of whom 3,488 responded to the survey between June 22 and June 28. The margin of error for the full sample is +/- 1.8 percentage points. Smaller subsamples, including those for age groups, have a larger margin of error. The full methodology can be viewed here.
