The youth are turning against AI.

Pew Research Center ran a study to explore how Americans use and view artificial intelligence.

As you might expect, AI usage continues to increase, with about half of U.S. adults now report using AI chatbots. Primary use-cases are searching information and for tasks at work. ChatGPT is still by far the most used AI chatbot, even with Claude being so dominant in enterprises.

This was by far the most surprising statistic to me:

Only 16% of Americans in the poll believe AI will have a positive impact on society.

Americans aged 18-29 are the most pessimistic, with 48% believing AI will have a negative impact on society over the next 20 years.

This outlook is very disappointing, and I believe AI is suffering from a little bit of a “PR nightmare” due to how much misinformation is spread.

We are barely scratching the surface on the positive advancements attributed to AI. In healthcare alone, AI is detecting cancer earlier, accelerating drug development and research, and last year’s Nobel Prize for Chemistry went to the DeepMind AlphaFold project at Google.

I understand where they are coming from though. A few reasons that have come to mind:

1) A news cycle constantly filled with fear mongering. 2) Vocal individuals claiming that AI is a way to decrease “human capital” (I absolutely hate that term). 3) It is increasingly difficult to enter into the job market.

Just like any technological leap, it will take time to adjust. I am confident the good will out-weigh the bad in the long-run.