An unusual generational divide in attitudes toward artificial intelligence. According to recent Pew Research Center polling, 52% of Americans now say they are more concerned than excited about AI, compared with 37% in 2021. Among Americans under 30, that figure rises to 55%. But people aged 50–64—roughly the Gen X generation—are the only age group in which a majority does not describe itself as more concerned than excited about AI.
The result is somewhat surprising because Gen X is often assumed to be less technologically comfortable than younger generations. Yet the article suggests that their relationship with technology may actually make them less impressed and less intimidated by AI hype. Gen X experienced the transition from an essentially offline world to personal computers, the internet, smartphones and social media. AI may therefore appear to them as another major technological transition rather than an entirely unprecedented transformation.
Younger Americans, by contrast, are encountering AI at a moment when it is directly affecting education, employment and creative work. The article points to the growing frustration among young people who feel that AI is being promoted as their future while simultaneously threatening their job prospects and changing the value of skills they spent years developing. VICE has previously reported on Gen Z workers resisting corporate AI initiatives and on students publicly booing pro-AI messaging at graduation ceremonies.
The broader point is that AI skepticism isn't simply a question of age or technological literacy. Different generations are evaluating the technology based on what they expect to gain or lose from it. Gen X may see AI as another useful, sometimes annoying technology, while younger people may see it as a force that could fundamentally reshape their education, careers and creative lives. That makes the generational divide less about who “understands” AI and more about who feels most exposed to its consequences.
