A new Pew Research Center poll reveals a complex relationship between young Americans and AI. While Gen Z is the most likely age group to have used a chatbot, they are simultaneously the most likely to believe AI will have a negative impact on society and their personal lives in the coming decades. The report highlights concerns about job displacement, reliability, and the influence of technology, even as usage climbs among younger generations.
), but is still the most likely to have used it, according to a new poll from the Pew Research Center released on Wednesday. The report comes as societies across the globe are grappling with the impacts of AI, which has reshaped all aspects of life from health, education, work, but the new poll reveals that many Americans are concerned about the potential harms of AI on both their personal life and society.
Gen Z is the age group most likely to say they believe AI will have a “negative” impact over the next 20 years, with 48 percent saying they believe the impacts on society will be negative and 37 percent saying the impact on themselves will be negative. Only 14 percent of those between the ages of 18 and 29 said they believe AI will have a positive impact on society, while 20 percent said they will see positive effects in their personal life.
“While most adults under 30 use chatbots, they’re the most skeptical about AI’s future impact,” the report from Pew Research Center reads. Lee Rainie, director of Elon University’s Imagining the Digital Future Center, who previously oversaw the Pew Research Center unit that produced the report before leaving the organization in 2023, told“Particularly with college and graduate students, they’re entering a world of work that is also being radically disrupted,” he said.
“Even if they’re enthusiastic about using it in some respects—other times older adopters in some respects—other times they’re also very worried about the job market. ” Rainie said Gen Z's relationship with AI and technology is a"complicated story.
" Many are early embracers of the technology and have grown up with language models, but have also heard about its impacts on the environment and concerns that it is not always reliable. The"cheating wars" have also been disruptive on campuses across the country, he said. The survey was published on Wednesday and conducted from February 17-23, 2026, among 5,119 panelists.
Still, 66 percent of Gen Z says they have ever used a chatbot, such as ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot—up from 55 percent in 2024, according to the report. That is more than any other age group. Sixty-one percent of those between the ages of 30 and 49 have used a chatbot, compared to 42 percent of those between the ages of 50 and 64, and 23 percent of those 65 or older, according to the survey.
Those between the ages of 30 and 49 are more likely to use a chatbot daily. Twenty-three percent of the age group says they do so, compared to 21 percent of those between the ages of 18 and 29, the poll found. Older Americans are less likely to use a chatbot daily—only 13 percent of those between 50 and 64, and 4 percent of those 65 years old or older, report doing so.
In a sign of just how skeptical many young Americans are about AI, there has been a trend of college commencement speakers facing boos when discussing the technology during their speeches. In May, Google CEO Eric Schmidt faced jeers after mentioning AI during his address, stating that it will “touch every profession, every classroom, every hospital, every laboratory, every person and every relationship you have. ” “I know what many of you are feeling about that.
I can hear you,” he responded.
“There is a fear in your generation that the future has already been written, that the machines are coming, that the jobs are evaporating … and I understand that fear. ” Music executive Scott Borchetta, the CEO of Big Machine Records, was met with a similar response during a speech at Middle Tennessee State University. —the most difficult since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Unemployment among recent college graduates stood at 5.6 percent in March 2026, compared to 4.2 percent among all workers, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
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