The Secret AI Lives of Gen Z

Good morning. This is Katie Deighton filling in for Nat Ives.

Yesterday, I headed downtown to OpenAI’s office in Manhattan for a panel discussion on how Gen Z-ers really feel about artificial intelligence.

Hosted by the youth trends writer Casey Lewis, the event took place as AI itself faces a reputational crisis: Communities across the country are protesting the building of data centers, and memes that evoke nostalgia for a time before AI fill social media. More than half of Gen Z use generative AI at least weekly, but their negative emotions toward it have intensified, according to an April poll from Gallup.

Lewis sat down with three panelists in their 20s—two in the workforce, one still in college—to get a better understanding of how they’re thinking about the technology. Here are some of my biggest takeaways from the conversation: