Gen Z is fed up with AI, and they want you to know it
Artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly prevalent in Americans’ day-to-day lives. From entering the journalism industry to drafting legal briefs, there’s a lot of excitement from companies and developers. But not everyone is happy.
Younger generations, including Gen Z, are making sure the world knows their stance. Polls show pessimism about the workforce thanks to AI, and college commencement speeches are drawing boos from students.
Booing at college graduations
In the last few weeks, multiple graduation commencement speakers have been booed for mentioning AI.
On Friday, the former CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, was booed repeatedly during his speech at the University of Arizona.
“You will help shape artificial intelligence,” Schmidt said, prompting the crowd to boo.
He continued, trying to speak over the crowd: “You can now assemble a team of AI agents to help you with the parts that you could never accomplish on your own. When someone offers you a seat on the rocket ship, you do not ask which seat; you just get on.”
And he’s not the only one. Gloria Caulfield, an executive at real estate firm Tavistock Development Company, delivered a speech at the University of Central Florida last week in which she called the rise of AI “the next industrial revolution.”
The crowd immediately began booing, crescendoing until finally Caulfield turned to others on the stage and asked, “What happened?”
She went on to say she “struck a chord.” When her speech mentioned that AI was not a factor in our lives just a few years ago, students cheered.
What the polls show about Gen Zers and AI
Gallup conducted a poll in April, looking at AI usage and support among Gen Z and the results are telling.
While 51% of respondents said they use AI at least weekly, excitement and hopefulness surrounding the technology are declining.
Among members of Gen Z — folks born between 1997 and 2012, who make up the super-majority of colleges’ current graduating classes — only 22% feel excited about AI’s future, a 14% decline from 2025. Hopefulness surrounding AI also dropped by 9% among those 14- to 29-year-olds, and anger toward the technology rose by 9%.
Another Gallup poll found that only 43% of Americans between 15 and 34 years old think now is a good time to find a job locally, down from 75% in 2022. AI can’t can’t take all the blame, but it certainly plays a part.
“I feel like anything that I’m interested in has the potential of maybe getting replaced, even in the next few years,” Sydney Gill, 19, a freshman at Rice University in Houston, told The New York Times.
Whether AI takes over industries and eliminates jobs for Gen Zers remains to be seen, but one thing we know for sure is this: they’re not excited about it.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
