What is the hottest Gen-Z tech trend? Anti-AI.

Gen Z is embracing anti-AI tech trends, building DIY 'cyberdecks' from Raspberry Pi and spare parts that reject artificial intelligence. The movement follows a surge in retro iPod sales, with Back Market reporting a nearly 50% increase last year and eBay seeing over 1,300 iPod searches per hour.

My favorite tech trend so far this year has nothing to do with artificial intelligence. It’s the cool girls making their own “cyberdecks,” — strange, DIY and highly customizable personal computers that explicitly reject AI. They look like props from a cyberpunk movie, usually built on a Raspberry Pi base and spare parts. As one tinkerer, whose “mermaid cyberdeck” videos have drawn tens of millions of views, puts it: “What we should do with cyberdecks is gatekeep them from AI and megacorp.” The cyberdeck boom follows the iPod as another Gen Z hardware obsession. Many of the models now being hunted online were released before their new owners were born. Refurbished tech site Back Market said that iPod sales jumped almost 50% last year, while eBay says “iPod” was searched more than 1,300 times an hour.