Forget cheating on homework and chatbot friends. Some kids are getting in on a new AI trend: thinking it sucks.
In the four years since chatbots went mainstream, and their marketing campaigns went into overdrive, young people have grown increasingly skeptical of the hype around LLMs. Yes, many of them still use the tech for school assignments and companionship, but according to market research firm YPulse, 37 percent of teens aged 13 to 17 cringe when they see AI content like music and videos, and more than half worry about misinformation and deepfakes.
The polling on youthful AI attitudes shows a great deal of contradiction. Adoption rates are high, with a majority of America’s teens reporting they use chatbots, but enthusiasm is mixed. A recent Pew Research report found that while many teens think AI will be good for them personally, over a fourth of their cohort believe AI will have a negative impact on society in the next 20 years, citing job loss, the decline of critical thinking skills, and environmental impacts as concerns.
Young people typically adopt new consumer technology eagerly, but Melanie Green, a communications professor at the University at Buffalo, says AI is different. This time, the moral panic isn’t coming from older generations—in fact, kids are turned off by the way AI is being pushed on them by adults and tech corporations. They’re also, Green says, “acutely aware that whatever disruption happens, their generation is going to be bearing the brunt of it.”
Ergo, the eye-rolls. On Bluesky, parents bond over their kids’ distrust of AI, with many claiming that their children come home saying “that’s AI” to mean “that’s BS.” On Reddit, educators share that students—even those who use AI—worry about its consequences and can’t stand the art it produces. WIRED spoke to young people, their parents, and their teachers to find out why some kids don’t want to be on the AI bandwagon.