When researchers asked children aged 10 to 18 about artificial intelligence, the responses revealed unexpected attitudes. Instead of excitement or fear, many expressed indifference, skepticism, or resistance to letting AI influence their lives.
Most kids aren’t demanding AI tools.
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The interviews showed that many students reacted with disinterest—shrugs, dismissive remarks like “bruh” and “meh,” or outright refusal to discuss the topic. Some held strong opinions, though not always what adults might expect. One teen said his peers use it for things they know they shouldn’t, like writing papers. Another told us she won’t touch AI because of the environmental impact. A few said they find the whole field disheartening: “AI isn’t the solution to our problems,” said Winter, a 17-year-old. “I’m afraid it’s going to be the end of creativity and critical thinking.” Yet most of the kids asked admitted to using AI at least a little bit.
A 2026 survey by Pew Research Center found that 57% of U.S. teens had used chatbots to search for information, 54% for schoolwork, and 47% for entertainment. Only 12% turned to AI for emotional support. Teens are over four times more likely to be using AI in innocuous ways than potentially harmful ones. For younger children, AI isn’t a priority. Unlike smartphones or social media, they don’t seek it out. Many told us that some of their first AI encounters came from their parents or schools. Sometimes, they said, it’s just embedded in the devices and apps they already rely on. It’s just there, in things like a Google search.
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Some are even using it to build things, whether it’s a character, a tech platform, or a tutor to help other kids study.
The danger is the reason to teach the thing, not to avoid it. Kids can stumble into unfiltered content, lean on a chatbot instead of their own judgment, or trust an answer that’s wrong—and they should be protected from those dangers. But what surprised researchers most was how much young people might be able to teach adults about AI, and how clearly the kids who use it could name what they will and won’t hand over. They’re not as worried that it will take their jobs as they are that it might harm society.
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Remy, 16, from New York, uses AI for programming but views it as imperfect. “A group of hackers used Instagram’s chatbot to gain access to famous accounts. The hackers convinced it to reset the passwords to accounts like Obama’s and send the reset email to their own email. Then they changed the account and posted things from several famous accounts at once, using a vulnerability that came only from AI.” The word that comes to mind when he thinks about AI is “indifferent.” He just doesn’t find the current applications that exciting for his own use. He goes to school, teaches tae kwon do (a Korean martial art), reads, and plays games with friends. None of that needs AI. He mostly uses Claude, the free version, for programming outside of school. He had it help him write a program to see if he could tweak his computer’s overclock. So he sees the appeal. But at school, he actually thinks AI mostly makes his assignments worse, not better. In English, everything is now in-class writing.
Most children aren’t waiting for AI to reshape their lives. They use it when helpful, ignore it when unnecessary, and resist when it feels intrusive. Their concerns aren’t primarily about job loss but about losing something less tangible—creativity, independence, the ability to think for themselves. While adults debate AI’s future impact, children are already deciding how much of it they’ll allow into their lives.
