A headline recently published by Fast Company suggests that I might be surprised to find out which generation is most comfortable with AI, and I can assure the writer and editor of that piece that I am absolutely not surprised in any way to discover that Gen X is cool with it while the rest of us are ready to hang a chatbot in the town square.
According to a recent Pew Research Center survey, Americans are becoming more skeptical of artificial intelligence. Fifty-two percent now say they’re more concerned than excited about AI, up from 37 percent in 2021. Among people under 30, that number has reached 55 percent. But people ages 50 to 64, aka Gen Xers, are the only age group where a majority doesn’t describe itself as more concerned than excited.
This is where my completely anecdotal and scientifically useless theory comes in: Older people seem to have spent their lives being remarkably uncritical about new technology. Millennials and Gen Z, meanwhile, appear much more inclined to look at whatever Silicon Valley is currently selling as the Next Big Thing and see it for what it really is: marketing hype selling a product that’s probably more dangerous than it is helpful.
Gen X Is Less Worried About AI Than Every Other Generation
Meanwhile, and again this is purely anecdotal on my part, Gen Xers seem more inclined to view AI as more of a cool toy, and they can see downsides but aren’t terribly concerned about them. Or at least don’t think they outweigh the benefits.
Data centers consume enormous amounts of water? Yes, but the robot just gave me a delightful scrambled eggs recipe that uses the shell! Chatbots confidently invent information? Not according to the chatbot! Generative AI produces convincing fake images that can distort a person’s view of reality? Look! LOOK! The machine — no, I — made a picture of me as Superman!
That’s just my non-peer-reviewed theory. While younger Americans are increasingly worried that AI will eliminate jobs and wreck society as a whole, as it further damages interpersonal human connections and cheapens the very idea of human creative output, Gen Xers are clapping like happy seals in the comments section of an AI video. Meanwhile, according to the Pew survey, 72 percent of 50- to 64-year-olds think AI will lead to fewer jobs over the next 20 years, up from 69 percent who believed the same thing when the same survey was conducted in 2024.
The one silver lining is that only eight percent of Gen Xers surveyed were “more excited than concerned” about AI. Overall, though, the survey paints a picture of a generation that acknowledges a problem but just doesn’t care. It makes sense why. Again, anecdotally, they seem to have grown up more trusting of corporations, truly believing they have their best interests at heart.
When they’re told that every new tech innovation is just another tool in the toolbox, they seem to be the first ones eager to believe it, and the AI-generated pictures of friends and family members posted to Facebook depicting them on vacations they never went on are just a small price to pay for whatever damage they cause.
Kind of fitting for the generation best known for its apathy.
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