Gen Z's Use of AI Is Plateauing as Youth Feel Less Hopeful About the Tech
gizmodo.com
Adoption by the rising generation in the workforce could have big implications for the economy.

Young people have grown increasingly skeptical of artificial intelligence, even those who use it daily, according to a new Gallup poll of more than 1,500 people aged 14 to 29.

There is no decline in AI use among Gen Zers, but there is also no increase since the same poll was conducted in 2025. The latest poll found that AI use was plateauing among young users, accompanied by rising concern about the technology’s consequences.

The findings are significant because Gen Z is “the generation most likely to enter or grow within the workforce over the next decade,” the report notes, meaning that their adoption could determine the trajectory of broader societal AI adoption. Gen Z has already overtaken Boomers in the workforce. Right now, the AI world is preparing for a massive jump in expected demand, and the top tech and financial companies are investing billions upon billions of dollars into building out the supply. Experts have warned that if demand does not pan out exactly as expected in the short term, then it could have disastrous consequences for the economy.

  • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
    17·
    2 days ago

    Enshitification barely allowed these tools to function as advertised for more than a few years.

    They’re already getting siloed behind paywalls, tranched into “unusable trash $TooMuch/mo” and “barely working as intended $WayTooMuch/year”, and porked up with useless ephemeral. The cutting edge stuff - Sora, for instance - gets trashed almost as soon as it is released. The OpenClaw shit just fucks your shit up if you’re not babysitting it constantly. Mythos isn’t even for public consumption. Grok is entirely for CSAM. A bunch of these models are just being turned over to the military, because Pentagon officials know to keep eating that bullshit and never complain.

    What’s the draw anymore? Come use this garbage application that is going to render your job obsolete largely by tanking the overall economy.

    • partofthevoice@lemmy.zip
      6·
      2 days ago

      That is why I am make sure to download and backup interesting models from huggingface. I can even run some of them on my hardware.

      I fully expect that some innovation will one day make models much easier to run locally, including the huge ones. Like quantization already does, but better. By around this time, I also expect a fresh push from OpenAI and the like to try making access to open models much more difficult. So, I want a repository in preparation. Fuck them in advance.