As an earlier wave of Generation Z was the first cohort to grow up in an online world where being on the internet was as natural to them as breathing, today’s teenagers are the first to be exposed at a young age to the next wave of digital technology, Artificial Intelligence (AI). While AI is not as pervasive in today’s teenagers’ lives as the internet was to the first wave of digital teenage natives, it’s rapidly taking hold.
More than 6-in-10 (64%) teens use AI chatbots, according to a recent Pew Research Center study. Nearly 3-in-10 (28%) use them daily, and more than 1-in-10 (12%) use them several times a day, Pew finds.
The top reasons teens give for using chatbots are search for information, get help with schoolwork, and for fun and entertainment with 57%, 54% and 47%, respectively saying that is one of their reasons. “About four-in-ten each report using chatbots to summarize articles, books or videos or create or edit images or videos,” Pew finds. “And about one-in-five say they use chatbots to get news.”
The study provides some credence to the well-publicized fears that too many teens and young adults are relying on chatbots for emotional support or advice on sensitive topics, sometimes with disastrous results. While the overwhelming majority of teens don’t use AI for these reasons, more than 1-in-10 (12%) do, saying they use chatbots to get emotional support or advice. About 1-in-6 (16%) say they use chatbots to have casual conversations.
Another fraught topic upon which insight is provided is the use of AI in school. A majority of teens (53%) say they do at least a little of their schoolwork with help from chatbots. Perhaps more telling and a preview of what is to come, “one-in-ten teens say they do all or most of their schoolwork with chatbots’ help,” according to Pew. The top ways teens say they use AI for schoolwork are “researching a topic,” “solving a math problem,” or “editing something they wrote.”
Nearly 6-in-10 (59%) teens believe that “using AI to cheat is a regular occurrence at their school – happening at least somewhat often.” About 1-in-3 say "it happens extremely or very often.”
Much like the rest of us, teens have mixed views on whether AI overall will turn out to be a positive or negative development for them personally or for society as a whole. Asked whether they think the impact of AI on them personally over the next 20 years will be positive or negative, 36% say positive, 32% say equally positive and negative, 15% say negative and 17% are not sure.
Similarly, on AI’s societal impact, 31% say positive, 34% say equally positive and negative, 26% say negative and 8% are not sure. Teens are early adopters of new technology, and the rest of us usually follow. Given that among today’s teens, the use of chatbots is already widespread, AI’s pervasiveness in our society is not a matter of if anymore; it’s just a question of when.
And we are getting further behind each day in wrestling with the broad societal implications of this development, one that is barreling towards us like a freight train. Now is the time to begin advancing appropriate domestic regulations and international understandings that will enable us to harness the large positive potential of AI while minimizing its downside risks
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