How kids feel about AI, in their own words

When we set out to talk to kids about artificial intelligence, we thought we knew what we’d hear. We expected some to tell us they were using it to cheat a little, the way Millennials and Gen Xers opened up CliffsNotes or programmed formulas into their TI-82s, and others to share inspiring ways they were using it. We were also listening for concerns that were less kid-specific, like deepfakes or job destruction. But what we actually heard when we asked kids aged 10 to 18 about AI had tons of nuance.

Many of the same kids who can go on and on about music, rock climbing, or soccer met our questions with words like “bruh” and “meh”—or were so deeply against AI or uninterested in making it part of their lives that they didn’t want to talk about it at all. One teen said his peers use it for things they know they shouldn’t, like writing papers. One 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 we asked admitted to using AI at least a little bit.

AI doesn’t yet seem to be something a lot of elementary- or middle-school-age kids we spoke to are focused on—and they aren’t begging for it, the way they do for iPhones and Snapchat accounts. 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.

What we heard tracks with the data. In a survey published in February 2026 , the Pew Research Center found that 57% of teens in the US had used chatbots to search for information, 54% tapped them to help with schoolwork, and 47% had used them for fun or entertainment. Only 12% had used them for emotional support or advice. Teens are over four times more likely to be using AI in innocuous ways than potentially harmful ones. Some are even using it to build things, whether it’s a character, a tech platform, or a tutor to help other kids study.

None of that means the worries are misplaced. 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 the danger is the reason to teach the thing, not to avoid it. We don’t teach teens to never drive. We teach them to check their blind spots.

What surprised us 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. And with increasing access to tools that could in theory do their thinking, their talking, or even their friend-­making for them, it sounds as if most want to keep their hands on the wheel.

Interviews have been edited for length and clarity.

JUSTYNA STASIK

The Coder

**Remy, 16, New York**

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What's something AI did that surprised you?

“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 I think about AI is “indifferent.” I just don’t find the current applications that exciting for my own use. I go to school. I teach tae kwon do. I read. I play games with friends. None of that needs AI. I mean, I use it. I mostly use Claude, the free version, for programming outside of school. I had it help me write a program to see if I could tweak my computer’s overclock. So I see the appeal.

But at school, I actually think AI mostly makes my assignments worse, not better. In English, everything is now in-class writing, because teachers don’t want kids cheating. So we have only 70 minutes to write a whole essay, and I think that hinders my writing. (Did you know Princeton voted to let faculty proctor exams for the first time in over a century? Their honor code goes back to 1893, and now it’s over because of AI.)

As far as code goes, I’d also rather build things myself. I’ve been making a reinforcement-learning model in a game engine with a friend; it moves randomly at first, gets rewarded for walking toward a coin, and after enough iterations it teaches itself the most efficient path. I’ve also tested AI for game development, and it isn’t there. It makes sloppy code, and it’s bad at blending mechanics into something cohesive. I’d spend more time correcting it than writing it myself.

I think AI right now is sort of like the first car or the first airplane. It’s interesting but crude. It’s obviously an amazing invention but not actually good yet.

Overall, I think AI right now is sort of like the first car or the first airplane. It’s interesting but crude. It’s obviously an amazing invention but not actually good yet. It’ll get somewhere. One thing I read about was AI flagging breast cancer more accurately, trained to catch its own false positives so a human still verifies. That’s the version I care about.

The Organizer

**Danielle, 18, California**

What most excites or worries you about AI?

“I’m most worried about our ability to think critically and the potential for misinformation, disinformation, and biases to be spread through too much trust in AI.”

I’m studying engineering, and my life goal is to innovate technology that will help as many people as I can. The way I see it, AI isn’t inherently good or bad; that’s decided by the people using it. It’s already being used for lots of good. Just think about how it helps people with personalized education and more accessible medical diagnoses.

PING ZHU