Teens Are Over the AI Hype, and They're Not Shy About It

Key points

• 37 percent of teens aged 13 to 17 say they cringe when they encounter AI-generated content such as music and videos, according to market research firm YPulse.
• More than half of teens in the same survey said they worry about misinformation and deepfakes, which are AI-generated fabrications that can be images, audio or video.
• A Pew Research report found over a quarter of American teens believe AI will have a negative impact on society over the next 20 years.
• Teens cite job losses, weakened critical thinking and environmental damage as their top concerns about AI.
• Communications professor Melanie Green says kids are especially aware that their generation will bear the consequences of AI disruption.

Some teenagers are using a new shorthand. When they spot something fake or untrustworthy, they say: "That's AI." Not a compliment.

Wired AI reported last week on a generational split the tech industry largely did not anticipate. Young people are adopting AI tools at high rates, yes. But a meaningful slice of them openly dislike the technology, distrust the companies behind it, and resent being told how great it all is.

What do the numbers actually show?

Teen attitudes toward AI are genuinely contradictory. Most American teenagers say they use chatbots, the text-based AI assistants that can write essays and hold conversations. But using something and liking it are different things.

YPulse, a market research firm that tracks young consumer behaviour, found that 37 percent of teens aged 13 to 17 cringe at AI-generated content. More than half worry about misinformation and deepfakes.

Pew Research, one of the most cited polling organisations in the United States, found that while many teens think AI will benefit them personally, more than one in four believe it will harm society as a whole over the next two decades. They point to three main concerns: jobs disappearing, people losing the habit of thinking for themselves, and the energy consumption required to run AI systems.

Why are teens more sceptical than adults expected?

Melanie Green, a communications professor at the University at Buffalo, told Wired that AI is different from past tech trends. With smartphones or social media, the pushback came from parents and teachers. This time, kids are the ones rolling their eyes.

Green says young people are put off by the way AI is being sold to them by adults and large technology companies. They also, she says, understand something concrete: whatever disruption AI causes, their generation will live with it longest. That awareness maps onto a pattern we first noted on 19 July, when Christopher Nolan argued that public suspicion of AI among young people is healthy and exactly what the technology deserves.

On Bluesky, the social platform, parents post about children who come home using "that's AI" to mean "that's rubbish." On Reddit, teachers describe students who use AI for schoolwork but still complain about its effects and actively dislike AI-generated art.

What does this mean for ordinary people?

For parents, the picture is more complicated than either moral panic or enthusiastic adoption. A child who uses ChatGPT for homework and also thinks AI is overrated isn't being contradictory. They're being accurate.

For educators, teen scepticism may be a resource rather than a problem. Students who distrust AI-generated content are already practising a skill schools are trying to teach: checking whether something is real.

For the industry, selling AI to a generation that finds the marketing exhausting will require more than better ads. That's the story the numbers keep telling, and so far the industry isn't listening.

Common questions

Are teens actually using AI less than adults?

Not necessarily less, but differently. Adoption rates among teenagers are high, yet enthusiasm is uneven. Many teens use AI tools out of convenience while remaining critical of the broader technology and the companies behind it.

Should parents be worried about teen AI scepticism?

Scepticism about a powerful technology is generally healthy. Teens who question AI-generated content, think about long-term consequences, and distrust AI-produced art are showing exactly the kind of critical thinking educators want to encourage.