Generation AI Has Its Doubts

Speaking at the University of Central Florida’s commencement ceremonies last weekend, Caulfield, the vice president of Strategic Alliances for Tavistock Development, had approached the microphone in long black and gold robes to speak positively about the sweeping improvements that artificial intelligence will bring to the next generation of workers and entrepreneurs. But what Caulfield had not considered was the simmering frustration among the several thousand students.

Caulfield spoke triumphantly. “The rise of artificial intelligence is the next Industrial Revolution!” And that’s when the jeers, instead of cheers, began. Caulfield awkwardly laughed and turned to her fellow speakers. “What happened?” Caulfield asked as she sought support. One student’s voice rose among the crowd. “AI sucks!” Turning back to the students, Caulfield admitted she had “struck a chord,” though it was clear that she struggled to comprehend which note had disturbed the College of Humanities students she was addressing.

“May I finish?” Caulfield attempted to power through her written statement. “Only a few years ago, AI was not a factor in our lives.” A giant cheer rang through the auditorium. 

Once again, Caulfield turned toward the speakers and threw her hands up in disbelief. The camera cut to a shot of more than a hundred students, their faces beaming with joy. Some stood and defiantly shook their fists in support of Caulfield’s admission that artificial intelligence played but a small and remote role in the lives of Americans “only a few years ago.”

But her assessment of the issue, and the prepared remarks she read, had clearly missed the mark. This was not a “bipolar topic” at all—quite the opposite. Here, among the graduating humanities students at UCF, was evidence of a broader generational tension: young people may be the most AI-dependent generation in history, but they are increasingly uneasy about what the technology promises. The students expected to inherit these tools are also the ones most exposed to their consequences.

For Caulfield, a Florida business executive who favors the use of new technologies to drive innovation and capital, AI is a golden goose late in her career. Its emergence has created an entire new sector filled with the alluring promise that change is coming. For executives and investors nearing the apex of their careers, AI represents productivity, efficiency, and untapped markets. For students entering the workforce, it increasingly represents competition. That dilemma was the question on the minds of many students listening to Caulfield’s unrestrained AI optimism in central Florida this weekend. 

“Oh, I love it,” Caulfield retorted in jest, as if the matter at hand was a simple disagreement of taste. What Caulfield failed to recognize is that the controversies over the rise of AI—and over the future of those who will live with its consequences—is not something that can easily be addressed through the democratic process.

The students booing Caulfield are not anti-technology Luddites. In fact, Gen Z is the most AI-saturated generation in American history. In a March poll conducted online by Gallup which surveyed 1,572 people between the ages of 14 to 29, more than half of respondents say they use AI technology either daily or weekly. Another 11 percent say they use the technology at least once a month. Yet the same surveys show rising skepticism, falling optimism, and deep concern about AI’s impact on creative work and employment. 

Compared with similar polling by Gallup a year ago, respondents report being angrier and less hopeful about the emergence of artificial intelligence. Rising concern is no doubt exacerbated by the uncertainty many recent graduates feel as they enter workplaces where AI is quickly eroding entry-level opportunities. Coding, copywriting, design, legal research, translation, and white-collar internships are increasingly vulnerable as AI spreads. And despite dismissals from some that such claims are overwrought, it would appear the youngest generation most clearly anticipates where this is all headed.

Older Americans, particularly in creative industries, are also confronting the realities of artificial intelligence. Speaking at the Cannes Film Festival this week, the actress Demi Moore confidently stated that AI is here to stay. 

“To fight it is to fight something that is a battle that we will lose,” Moore admitted. “So to find ways in which we can work with it, I think is a more valuable path to take.” 

Her comments come only months before the premier of As Deep as the Grave, a new film that will use Val Kilmer's AI-generated likeness and voice a little more than a year after the actor died of pneumonia. And as AI-generated musicians and actors take on roles once exclusively performed by humans, Taylor Swift and Matthew McConnaughey have applied trademarks to their voices and images to protect from artificial intelligence impersonations. 

All of this signals a confusing future that many young Americans are no longer certain they even want. The students booing at UCF were not simply rejecting technology itself; they were rejecting an assumption that every technological advance automatically represents social progress. Raised alongside algorithms, automation, and artificial intelligence, Gen Z may become the first generation expected to champion a technological revolution they fundamentally distrust.