So what's so bad about using AI any way?

[highplainsdem]

21. I guess you've missed the recent news stories about how much younger people dislike genAI.

For instance:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100221159855

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/09/style/gen-z-ai-gallup-study.html

More than half of Gen Z-ers living in the United States use generative artificial intelligence regularly, but their feelings about the technology are souring, according to a new survey released on Thursday by Gallup, the Walton Family Foundation and GSV Ventures, a venture capital firm that works in education technology.

The percentage of respondents ages 14 to 29 who said they felt hopeful about A.I. declined sharply since last year, down to 18 percent from 27. Young adults’ excitement about artificial intelligence dropped, too, and nearly a third of respondents indicated that the technology made them feel angry.

-snip-

He said he had been surprised by how noticeably young people’s attitudes had shifted. Many respondents did acknowledge that A.I. might make them more efficient in school and the workplace, he said. But they were concerned about how the technology would affect their creativity and critical thinking skills.

Young adults in the work force were especially skeptical. Close to half of those surveyed said the risks of artificial intelligence outweighed its potential benefits in the workplace, an 11-point jump from the previous year. Only 15 percent said they saw A.I. as a net benefit.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/708224/gen-adoption-steady-skepticism-climbs.aspx

Similar proportions of Gen Zers believe AI will help (37% a little or a lot) or hurt (39% a little or a lot) their ability to search for accurate information, while about a quarter think it will do neither. At the same time, more tend to believe the technology will be harmful rather than helpful to their abilities to come up with new ideas on their own (38% harmful, 31% helpful) or think carefully about information (42% harmful, 25% helpful).

Gen Zers are less optimistic today than last year that AI will enhance their creativity and research skills, with the percentages expecting it to help them down 11 and six points, respectively.

Gen Zers also question whether AI's short-term conveniences come at the expense of their long-term development. Eight in 10 Gen Zers say it is “very” (34%) or “somewhat” (46%) likely that using AI tools will make it more difficult for them to learn in the future.

The artists I know on Bluesky who'll block anyone promoting AI or posting AI slop include very few older people.

GenAI is not viewed favorably by most people on Bluesky, which is a mostly liberal platform.

And it's good that it ISN'T viewed favorably, because genAI - the tech and the AI bros - are on the wrong side of issues liberals are supposed to care about.

GenAI is not viewed favorably by most people on Reddit, which tends to be liberal, with the exception of the specifically pro-AI forums.

You wrote:

For what it's worth, I'm a mid-range Gen Xer that uses AI almost daily.

You're also in favor of people wearing smart glasses, as I recall.

Generative AI is extremely flawed tech - so flawed even the genAI companies warn (as a way of reducing their legal liability for their defective AI tools) that its results should always be checked - but people who like it enough to keep using it have been found to check results for errors less and less, and to become more and more dependent on it, even outsourcing their judgment to it. That's probably in part because chatbots are designed to flatter AI users to keep them engaged and make them more and more dependent on AI.

Some people are unfortunately forced to use AI because of school or work. But it's unethical to use genAI voluntarily if one's aware that it's trained on stolen intellectual property.

Multiple studies have already shown that it dumbs users down.

And those very basic and catastrophic problems with genAI come with the additional problems that it harms both the natural environment and the information ecosystem, wrecks education, worsens inequality, and puts our digital infrastructure at risk through flawed code.

The question shouldn't be why anyone dislikes genAI, but why anyone who's even slightly aware of all the harm it does would think genAI is a good thing.