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Listen to tech luminaries like Audrey Tang, Jaron Lanier, Joe Lubin, and Sinead Bovell as we advance the vision of new tech, policy, and economic approaches for building a better digital future.

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The teen perspective on AI

What do teens actually think about artificial intelligence?

When envisioning a better web, it’s common to hear people speaking on behalf of young internet users: parents concerned about their kids; policymakers advocating for bills that protect minors; tech platforms rolling out features that create safer spaces by default for young users.

To build a multigenerational movement of leaders defining what the internet’s future should be, it’s vital that young people speak for themselves—a vision shaped “by us, for us.” A recent survey made this possible.

The “Generation AI Survey” polled young people in the United States about how they expect AI to affect their education, careers, and lives. In addition to summarizing the key findings below, Project Liberty spoke with the two leaders behind the survey, Jason Hausenloy (19 years-old) and Saheb Gulati (17 years-old). Gulati will also be speaking at the Project Liberty Summit next week in Washington DC (you can watch the main stage live stream. See below). 

The survey results uncovered some surprising takeaways about what young people think about AI, as well as highlighted a possible path towards more responsible AI development.

In this week’s newsletter, we explore seven key insights from the survey.

// About the survey

The Center for Youth and AI (YouthAI), a youth-led research organization preparing and representing young people for the AI revolution, conducted the Generation AI Survey. (YouthAI is a member of Project Liberty’s Alliance, and Project Liberty Institute’s Jeb Bell and Jessica Theodule consulted on the survey design and questionnaire.) 

YouthAI enlisted the respected polling firm YouGov to conduct an online poll of 1,017 American teenagers (ages 13-18) from across the country in July and August of this year.

According to Sneha Revanur, the founder and president of Encode Justice, a youth-led, AI-focused civil-society group (and Project Liberty Alliance member), the survey was “the first and most comprehensive view on youth attitudes on AI I have ever seen.”

// Insight #1: Today’s teens are generation AI

Teens today are the first true “AI generation.” Not only are AI systems shaping every aspect of the lives of young people, but the survey found that teens are using it regularly. Nearly one in two teens uses AI tools several times a week or more. As Hausenloy said, “AI chatbots are becoming our tutors, our confidants, our therapists.” 

• In 2023, Snapchat reported its ‘My AI’ feature had over 200 million users.
• A 2024 report from Common Sense Media, another Project Liberty Alliance Member, found that while 70% of teens say they have used at least one type of generative AI tool, their parents were unaware: only 37% of parents whose teen reported using a gen AI platform thought their child had already used AI.

Saheb Gulati

// Insight #2: Teens are not as optimistic about AI as you might think

The survey revealed an unexpected insight: today’s teens, who are often early adopters and users of the latest technology, still have real concerns. Eighty percent of respondents believed it was important for lawmakers to address the risks posed by AI, placing it on par with inequality (78%) and climate change (77%) as pressing issues.

// Insight #3: Teen’s greatest AI-related concern was related to misinformation

The majority of teens are concerned about AI-generated misinformation (59% of respondents) and deepfakes (58% of respondents). 

Jason Hausenloy

One fifteen-year-old respondent expressed the confusion that AI is causing, “I never know if a picture I'm looking at is AI or not.” After misinformation, teens were most concerned about AI’s use in mass surveillance and monitoring (51%) and in use for political propaganda (48%).

// Insight #4: Teens drew distinction between friendly vs. romantic AI companions

When it comes to interacting with chatbots as distinct personas, teens were divided on whether it is acceptable to develop a friendship with an AI chatbot. By comparison, seven in ten teens find romantic relationships between humans and AIs unacceptable (while 24% find them acceptable).

It’s worth noting that the survey was conducted before news broke about Sewell Setzer IIl, the Florida teenager who committed suicide after months of intimate conversations with an AI chatbot. Perceptions of intimate human-AI relationships might have changed since. Regarding intimate relationships between humans and AIs, Hausenloy reflected the sentiment of many teens: “Our generation has become unwitting test subjects in a vast, unregulated experiment with artificial companions.”

// Insight #5: Teens look to the government to regulate AI

The survey revealed that teens are looking to the government to address the numerous challenges posed by the technology. Gulati and Hausenloy outlined three steps the government can take:

1. Create a dedicated AI regulator with real power. Similar to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for pharmaceutical companies, the leaders of the Center for Youth and AI want to see a regulator that provides licenses, assesses risks, and mandates safety measures.
2. Establish requirements that AI companies demonstrate that their systems are safe and compliant with existing regulations before being released.
3. Build boundaries around how AI systems interact with minors, especially for AI companions that offer emotional support. This could also include extending the liability for harms to developers and companies (similar to the UK’s Online Safety Bill, which holds company executives criminally liable if their company fails to comply with regulators’ notices about child sex abuse and exploitation). 

// Insight #6: Teens anticipate AI and automation will change their careers

The survey found that 65% of teens are factoring AI automation into their career plans. 

Given the speed of technological innovation, what careers should young people pursue? Gulati, for example, who is considering pursuing computer science or related fields, must not only consider what careers he's most suited for, but what careers will exist when he enters the workforce. “What is the field of computer science going to look like in 10 years—or even in December when OpenAI drops their next model?”

As Gulati and Hausenloy explained, AI will replace entry-level workers first: paralegals before partners, executive assistants before executives, coders before CEOs. This cuts off the bottom rungs of the economic ladder and could present challenges for young people to break into industries and get entry-level jobs. What happens when AI makes the first rung on the career ladder too high to reach? One 17-year-old said “I fear I won't have a job when I'm old enough to work.”

// Insight #7: Teens are reflecting on the bigger questions surrounding AI

One of the most poignant takeaways for Gulati and Hausenloy was the emotion, vulnerability, and sophistication of thought that young people expressed in their open-ended responses. Respondents shared powerful statements about what it means to be human, the power of human connection, and the fears surrounding a technology that could change so much. One 17-year-old wrote “I just hope that as AI gets more powerful, we don’t lose touch with what makes us human. I don’t want to live in a world where everything is just automated and we’re not needed anymore.”

This sentiment drives Project Liberty’s work (and the work of our 100+ Alliance members) to build a better web that’s defined more by human connection than algorithms and profit.

// Final Word

The survey contributes to a growing body of research and insights by Project Liberty and others (including a new report by More in Common on American impressions on generative AI). But more research is needed into what young people envision for the next generation of the internet. Fortunately, Gulati and Hausenloy, as members of the AI generation, are just getting started.

Other notable headlines

// 🇺🇸 Project Liberty Alliance member, New_ Public wrote a post on how social media shapes politics.

// 🏛 Trump's approach to Big Tech has shifted between calls for stricter regulations for some players and a hands-off approach for others. An article in WIRED examined how he might steer tech policy in a second term.

// 🇦🇺 Families are battling tech giants as Australia pushes for an under-16 social media ban, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal.

// 🛣 An article in Tech Policy Press applied an infrastructure lens to the digital world by building a framework and landscape of digital infrastructure.

// 🤔 The images of Spain’s floods weren’t created by AI. The trouble is, people think they were. An article in The Guardian explored how the rapid growth of ‘AI slop’ is starting to warp our perception of reality.

// 📱 Teens learn a new conspiracy theory every week on social media yet most schools aren’t teaching media literacy, according to a new study featured in an article in Fast Company.

// ❌ A long-form article in The Economist explored why trying to delete oneself from the internet is futile and laborious.

Partner news & opportunities

// Aspen Policy Academy’s "Action and Impact" event

November 14th from 4-7pm PT in San Francisco

Join the Aspen Policy Academy for a panel discussion with leading tech and policy experts, including Tani Cantil-Sakauye, Anamitra Deb, and Amanda Renteria, who will explore how policy can evolve to address technology’s growing role in society. Register here. 

// Join All Tech Is Human’s Responsible Tech Mixer & Author Series

November 14th at 6pm ET

Join All Tech Is Human for a fireside chat with Greg Epstein, author of Tech Agnostic: How Technology Became the World’s Most Powerful Religion, and Why It Desperately Needs a Reformation. In the book, Epstein—Harvard and MIT’s humanist chaplain—explores what it means to think critically about technology as it becomes a new form of faith. Register here.

// Webinar on misinformation, deepfakes, and youth

November 19th at 12pm ET

Join Children and Screens for their next #AskTheExperts webinar. A panel of cognitive development and digital literacy experts will explore how parents, caregivers, and educators help children navigate misinformation and deep fakes in their digital lives. Register here.

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