Most Young Americans Now More Concerned Than Excited About AI

A majority of Americans under 30 now say they are more concerned than excited about artificial intelligence, marking the first time that concern has reached this level among young adults, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. The findings show that enthusiasm for AI has weakened across every age group since 2021 as concerns about its broader effects continue to grow.

The Pew survey found that 55% of adults younger than 30 feel more concerned than excited about the increasing use of AI in everyday life. That represents a significant increase from 39% two years ago. Among U.S. adults overall, 52% said they are more concerned than excited about AI, a figure broadly similar to recent years but substantially above the 38% recorded in 2022.

Young adults have also experienced the largest decline in enthusiasm for AI since 2021. Just 11% of respondents under 30 said they are more excited than concerned about the technology, compared with 25% five years earlier. The decline reflects a broader reduction in AI excitement across all age groups.

Concerns about employment are also increasing. Seventy-one percent of Americans now believe the growing use of AI will result in fewer job opportunities over the next 20 years, up from 64% in 2024. Among adults under 30, the share rose even more sharply, climbing from 61% in 2024 to 73% in the latest survey.

Other Pew research has found similarly cautious views among younger Americans. A survey published in June found that 48% of adults under 30 believed AI would have a negative impact on society over the next two decades, the highest share among all age groups. Only 14% of young adults expected AI to have a positive effect on society.

The June survey also found that about one in five adults under 30 believed AI chatbots were harming their creativity, again the highest percentage recorded among age groups. Another Pew survey published in September found that 61% of adults under 30 believed AI would weaken people’s ability to think creatively, while 58% said it would negatively affect people’s ability to form relationships. Both figures were the highest among the age groups surveyed.

Despite these concerns, younger Americans remain the most frequent users of AI chatbots. Pew’s June survey found that 66% of adults under 30 use chatbots, an increase of 11 percentage points from two years earlier. Across all age groups, 49% of Americans said they use chatbots, with usage rising among every age group compared with Pew’s 2024 findings.

Young adults are using chatbots for a range of purposes. About 20% said they use them for emotional advice, 27% use them for medical advice and 54% use them to search for information.

A separate CNBC survey published last week also found widespread distrust of major AI-company executives among Americans aged 18 to 34. When asked which technology CEOs they trusted to act responsibly on AI, 81% said they distrusted Palantir CEO Alex Karp, while 79% expressed distrust of Peter Thiel. The figures were 76% for Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, 71% for Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, 70% for Elon Musk and 69% for OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.