Young people’s greatest fears of AI: privacy, dependency and professional future

Privacy, dependency and professional future are the main fears of young people when it comes to Artificial Intelligence (AI), and half of them admit to fearing what the world will be like in ten years due to the effects that this technology will have on the world.

Young people between 16 and 30 years old make up a generation that is divided between technological fascination and fear of what it may cause in the future, according to a survey carried out by Luzia, the Spanish conversational AI app.

While 29 percent express moderate doubts and 21 percent report feeling little or no fear, half admit to being afraid to what the world will be like in ten years due to the implications that a technology like AI will have on their lives.

In addition to this existential fear for the world that is to come, young people divide their concerns into three main themes: privacy, dependency and professional future.

In the first, 73.5 percent of those under 25 years of age consider that their personal data is not safe in the digital environment, compared to 57.2 percent of those over 25 years of age, which reflects greater concern for your privacy among the youngest.

Dependence on AI is another of the core issues among young people, especially among those between 16 and 25 years old, of whom 66 percent have shared their fear of developing dependence on this technology, compared to 45 percent of those over 25. However, almost half (42.5%) of those under 25 years of age claim to use it daily.

The third most worrying issue is professional future that awaits themwith more than half (55.3%) worried about missing out on opportunities if they fall behind in learning AI tools. On the other hand, only 28.3 percent feel that this technology could jeopardize their professional opportunities.

Among those who use AI in their daily lives, 36.8 percent do so for study, 35.7 percent for entertainment, and 26.8 percent for work tasks.

The study highlights the importance that two out of every five female adolescents give to the use of AI to talk about personal and emotional issueswhile only one in five male adolescents uses it for this purpose.

Likewise, young women between 16 and 25 years old are the most concerned (83%) about ‘deepfakes’ in which their image could be used without their permission for sexual content, compared to 34 percent of men.

Finally, young people feel very confident (75%) that they would be able to detect direct deception if an AI tried to impersonate their best friend or partner, while the rest recognize that they could be harmed if they suffered this type of digital mishap.

There is another fact that shows how visual distrust is increasing in the new generations, since almost seven out of ten young people already have doubts about any photo, audio or video before accepting it.