Why are more young people angry about AI? Researcher says there's been a "meaningful shift" with Gen Z.

Commencement speakers across the country are learning this spring that there's one topic that probably won't get you a standing ovation: artificial intelligence.

Speaking to graduates at the University of Central Florida, real estate executive Gloria Caulfield seemed stunned to be loudly booed as she touted AI as the next Industrial Revolution. The former CEO of Google Eric Schmidt also heard the boo birds at the University of Arizona and told the raucous audience, "There is a fear in your generation."

He's not wrong. College grads are part of "Gen Z." If you were born between 1997- 2012 you are Gen Z. They have grown up with smartphones and social media and now 51% of Gen Z say they use AI at least once per week. But that doesn't mean they are thrilled. In fact, a recent Gallup poll shows there is growing trepidation.

Zach Hrynowski is a senior researcher at Gallup and was not surprised to see commencement speakers being booed. "I felt like I was early to the party and this something that we've been seeing in the data," Hrynowski said.

Gen Z's feelings about AI

For the second year in a row, Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation polled more than 1,500 Gen Z-ers about their feelings surrounding AI. For Hrynowski the results in 2026 jumped off the page.

"When I see seven, eight, nine, 10-point swings over the course of one year, that is a meaningful shift. It's not just noise in the numbers," Hrynowski said.

According to Gallup, 42% of respondents said AI makes them anxious. That was unchanged from the 2025 poll.  However, 22% said they were excited about AI, which was 14% less than last year.

The amount who said they were "hopeful" fell 9%. One emotion increased: anger.  Thirty-one percent of Gen Z respondents said they were "angry" over AI.  That is a 9% increase over last year.

Hrynowski says, "They seem to be pumping the brakes and telling us 'Hold on a second, we are a little bit nervous about this and are not so sure we should be adopting this as quickly as you think we should.'"

Psychologist on AI anxiety

What is behind this downward shift in Gen Z's comfort level with AI? Dr. Julie Lee, a psychologist whose research focuses on Gen Z says she hears from young patients quite often about their AI anxiety.

Dr. Lee says many of them feel like this technology, good or bad, is being pushed on them with a "just deal with it" kind of attitude.   

"I think what I hear from Gen Z is they don't expect educators or parents or people in their life to change how things are, but what they do want is empathy and understanding that their lives are being affected in a significant way," says Lee.

We visited the campus of MIT, a force in the development of AI technologies, where we found students representing all of the emotions mentioned in the Gallup poll.

AJ Sachwitz is hopeful. "With drug discovery, cancer research, all these tools helping to further humanity, there are just so many good uses of AI," Sachwitz said.

Ellie Bulcena, days away from graduation, is anxious, especially for the younger members of Gen Z.  "To put it in Gen Z terms: they are 'cooked.' They are cognitively cooked. Because they are going to grow up relying on those tools and never having to think or struggle for themselves," Bulcena said.

Gbemi Odebode was closer to angry. She thinks AI is great for research but also thinks companies are pushing it on consumers with little oversight. "I think AI companies are a threat to the general well-being of the American populace and I am concerned that in the pursuit of profit, Americans will be left behind," Odebode said.  

WBZ's David Wade held out his phone and had Odebode tell this directly to Chat GPT which responded: "That's a sharp take. You can support the tech and still call out profit driven harm. Accountability and public benefit have to be part of the deal."

Odebode was less than impressed pointing out that someone out there had researched and written the information for that AI response without any credit at all from the platform.

What's clear is AI isn't going away. What remains to be scene is whether Gen Z will come to accept it or reject it. We will know more when the new Gallup poll on AI comes out again next year.

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