The AI Paradox: Gen Z Uses More AI Yet Feels More Skeptical and Anxious

Welcome back to another episode of Two Guys Against AI. Today, we are diving into a fascinating paradox defining the next generation of workers: Generation Z is using generative AI more than anyone else, but they are becoming increasingly angry, anxious, and skeptical about it. According to a recent Gallup survey, positive emotions like hope and excitement surrounding AI are dropping rapidly among young adults, replaced by a growing resentment and distrust in the machine's accuracy. We unpack the tension between the perceived inevitability of AI and the very real human backlash brewing just beneath the surface.

In this episode, we break down a recent ZeroHedge article covering this trend and ask the hard questions about what this means for the future of work and education. Are young people actually mad at the technology itself, or are they frustrated with employers using AI to deskill roles, surveil workers, and cut labor costs? We explore why usage stays incredibly high even as trust plummets—is it an addiction to convenience, immense social pressure, or simply a lack of viable alternatives in a hyper-competitive job market?

Join us as we debate the following critical themes:

The Illusion of Opportunity: Does the mandate that "AI is necessary for my future" sound like genuine career advancement, or coerced adaptation to a deeply flawed system?

The Death of the Entry-Level Job: If basic tasks are fully automated, how does a generation build fundamental competence, and what replaces the traditional corporate ladder?

Educational Crossroads: Should schools prioritize teaching AI prompts, or double down on building independent, AI-free critical thinking and writing stamina?

The Trust Deficit: What would actually rebuild public trust in these systems—strict product liability, transparent data provenance, or mandatory disclosure rules for AI in hiring and grading?

We also discuss whether the rising anger stems from users finally hitting the technical limits of Large Language Models, or if they are feeling the immediate economic threat to their livelihoods. The system is changing fast, and the generation tasked with adopting it is starting to push back.

Read the full article we discussed here: https://www.zerohedge.com/ai/gen-z-americans-grow-more-skeptical-and-angry-about-ai-survey-finds

Don't forget to like, subscribe, and let us know in the comments: Are you feeling the AI burnout?

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Here we go again. This one's we're gonna talk a little bit about uh some people that we know because uh either as students or grandchildren or something else, uh, or children, Gen Z versus the machine. I'm calling this one. Heavy use rising anger. What happens when you're looking down the barrel of a shotgun? Yeah. What happens when you don't have control over your future? Well, I think that's we we and you don't even have an idea what to envision for a future. Uh, I think we're seeing this with this. I and I look, I feel sorry for this generation more than any, you know, as a Gen Xer, I always felt sorry for myself, right? Because that's that was our mantra. But I really feel millennials, you know, I'll I'll I'll hold my tongue. And I have I have children who are millennials and children who are Gen Z, but Gen Z, it's like it's wild when you think about what they've had to go through already and what they've been what's been placed in front of them. And it doesn't surprise me that you see the rise of all this online gambling. Because when you don't, when you don't see a tangible future, you're going to go to these counterways. Like you're gonna, it's almost like your life is a bet, uh, kind of way. And when you think about this, uh, I think they're finally figuring out their shiny new robot toy is a corporate meat grinder in a lot of ways. And what what does their future look like in this world? And uh you know, they went to school for a long time and then they were told to stay home with COVID in certain states, uh, and told, you know, this was for the good of society when they weren't really even affected by that disease um long term. So they've they've gotten this, they've gotten it bad from the beginning, I think. Well, that's true, and uh, and and at the same time, they're they're struggling trying. Where are the opportunities? You know, we we talked about this a little while ago in terms of the the energy use. So, what are what are the tangible benefits that we're looking at moving forward? So the the automazi z automizing automation automation. Automation. The automation, see, you know, we're humans. Um, the automation is great from the prospect when you think, oh wow, we're gonna be able to get all this stuff at a lower cost. But Henry Ford, where is that? Henry Ford recognized that if your employees didn't make enough money to buy the product that you make, you've got a problem. They had to be part of the process. So when we look at the whole market economy concept that you know you you make things and then that's what makes things go on. The automate automate. Automation is over this time. Yeah, the automation ultimately does us in. And and I'm sure that's what they're starting to see as they're looking at this, it's like, well, what's left for me to do? I there was there was another case too, and I when I start to look at the bigger picture things, automobile rebuilding, parts rebuilding companies are being bought up and liquidated. They're just nobody's fixing anything. Everything is a throwaway. Uh there we're getting moved into a case, either whether it be technological obsolescence or whatever the case may be, but all of these opportunities, like being a mechanic, for instance, well, you can't be one if you can't buy parts. Everything is a black box. There's no there may ultimately be no diagnostics. You may need a human to plug them in, and you know what? You might not even need that. What are the things that they can look at in the future that they can't extrapolate that ultimately AI will be able to gobble up? Everything.

unknown 4:12

Everything.

SPEAKER_00 4:13

Everything. I mean, look, I mean, think about it. They don't there's no housing for them. There's no jobs for them. There's massive inflation. There's no set like when we were growing up, it was like, I mean, even at the low end, you could go into construction, you could go, and and I don't mean low end from a person, I mean like, you know, the unskilled end. You could go to battery. Yeah. There were there were there were things you could do. What does this look like for them? I mean, I they found the trades again in good form. Right. Um, because there might be some opportunities there, but could they ever make enough to buy a house? Uh you know, I I think that the sobering part of this is that we're actually starting to see um the types of progressions going into the future that we discussed in earlier episodes here. So, what does the post-AI life look like when everything is handled for you? Does that make you happy? Like you said, is the only excitement online gambling? I mean, I think here's where it is you you're you become addicted to a technology that is making you miserable. Scary thought, isn't it? I mean, and you don't know another world. So you you and I live in a very valuable world, we both grew up in an analog world. We did. That digitized. They came into a digital world. There's no no escape. Yeah, there's no but but also I was I was watching something, and a lot of studies have come out that says that that kind of that transition period between the analog and the digital was the height of human cognitive ability. And IQ scores have gone down like 2.2 points per year since then. And it doesn't sound like much when you when you say it in a decimal point, except when you put all those years together, it's a hell of a lot. Well, doesn't why bother pretty much come into the category there? What's what's what's the reason to excel when there's going to be no advantage? We we um and you know you're going back to the you know the socialist model, um, which we haven't seen that that was all successful either, is that when there's no incentive, there's no incentive. Yeah, I mean there's no there's no purpose. What is it? I mean, it they how do you find happiness without purpose? Yeah, well, you can play the games for a while, but then eventually it's old, and so then where where is the way that we're gonna be able to be amused? And and and we wonder why there's so much violence coming out of this. Well, it's out of desperation. Well, it's usually where it does come from, right? We're looking at what's helplessness, hopelessness, helplessness, yeah, and and not just that, what where's the income? And and so as we start to see that you know everything lining up towards the need for a universal income, if it is, and there's going to be some uh a lot of people talk about there's gonna be some kind of a reset. I think we're already seeing that the world's definition or or the human purpose definition is changing before our eyes. Gen Z now is the first batch to look at that and say, huh. This isn't about somebody in the future, this is us, because I already have no opportunity. Uh, like you say, I got to deployment something that's worthless. What an English look or history. History is rewritten regularly, and you can ask, you can ask for it, uh just um flip Gemini on and ask at any time. Well, I was about to say, you're it's uh what does your expertise matter at this point when the machine's gonna provide it to somebody within a with help with three questions? And the trades for a while, I think, are great opportunities because the walking-talking robots show up and work 24 hours a day, yeah, and don't complain, don't get sick, don't get sure they'll just kill us in the end, but stealing from us, it's up to our power, you know. But uh so so you know, when we look at that that situation, and I don't know um how educators in the future are gonna be able to be able to muster up the strength to go and blow smoke at these kids because what what we're training them in, how is that gonna help them? Well, look, the dominant ideology when you and I were growing up, and this was an important, and I've always been a firm believer that a society needs a dominant ideology, was work hard, get ahead. That was it. 98% of people believed that at one point when I was going through college. That was the dominant hegemony of our society. If you put in the effort, there would be a return exceptional effort, exceptionalism reward. Yeah, I don't know that that's believed in anymore. And I don't know if it's manifested anymore. How can you be exceptional in anything at this point? Well, you can't outdo the machine anymore. We can. Okay, I mean, even as we look at this, all right. So we're we're doing this, and and maybe if there's anything exceptional is that we looked at technology and realized that we could throw out, you know, a different point of view. But are we prepared for the redefinition of what the human experience is? Um, and I think that the desperation that is becoming more and more evident in Gen Z, which you have, you know, a hands-on scenario with all the time because you know you're dealing with the students and things like that. The fact is, is that you know what what do they have to be optimistic about? Well, I mean, here's and here's what I keep going back to. We can't all go travel because of over tourism. So some people are it doesn't matter what system you put in, you're not gonna everybody's not gonna get to go do these things, right? Because you you can't have every human being go to them. It's impossible. Well, much less, how do you logistically make it? But that's kind of the promise, right? If the system, you'll get everything. I think it's kumbaya. Kumbaya. You're gonna get you're gonna get you're gonna get to go there virtually. I mean, I think I even saw that. Well, you some some 10% of the people will get to go and everybody else get to put on gobbles. It's not the same. You have nothing to do with the human experience. That's that's really where we're at right now, and unfortunately for Gen Z. So, yeah, so it's a group brought up on digital. They're on various forms of social media, which is which are with all due respect, I look at these things and I'm like, these aren't real lives. Alright? Because the people who have those kind of lives that that I watch these young people post about, the ones who really have them, they don't post it. They don't want anybody to know. They're private people. Like, you know, have the kind of resources to have the luxury life, you're not telling anyone. Because someone might take it away. Like they're protective, they're real. So it's like it's all debt, it's all borrowed money, it's all fabricated realities. But how much of it is artificially generated? Well, yeah, they believe it's real, you know. I mean, when when when I I have to laugh because one of the things that I I look at, you know, with with an AI-generated message, if you wish, you always look at the hands because that's an area where they have. And the other thing, too, you may have an animated head and neck, but you'll find that the body is pretty much stable. Uh, it can be very articulate, and they manage to make it to where the you know the the the face moves with the words and everything like that. But there aren't all that many women that look like the ones that are that are you know making the pass and want to meet you. Well, as your mother used to tell you, those girls in that in the magazine aren't real. They aren't real. It turns out they weren't. They were all photos. And now, and now it's real or not real. So it gets it gets uh it gets uh surreal to me because, like you say, I wasn't I was an analog child. What is where do they go too from this point? Well, they're not gonna go where they need so here's what I'm gonna say. And you know, I got a lot of degrees, right? And I've said that before. But I always consider myself a philosopher in the end, which was my first one. Like, I don't care what I study. I'm gonna look at the I'm gonna look I'm gonna look at the metaphysics, the philosophy, the ethics, all of that of it. And and and here's where I am. I can do that because of that analog world, because I know how to read. And I read all those things, and I read them over and over again. Because that's what we have. We have books, like in three channels when it was good weather, right? Bad weather, maybe one, maybe when it snowed none, right? We had to analog. There was always snow. It snowed all the time on those things. Their world was, and even some of them that are just coming out out of school now. Well, the AI did my help me do my homework for me. Well, that's where you go. You go back in when when there's nothing extra, you go back intern, which is always a dangerous place. I used to, when I used to teach about social philosophers, philosophers, you know, just think about how many of those those lives ended kind of poorly. Like you can only spend so much time in death before you kind of lose it, right? That's it's a dangerous place to spend most of your life. But where do you go besides back in? Well, there's there's another place to go, though. And you've talked about this before. Other humans? That's a novel thought. Yeah, well, how about then? And uh and and I actually took pause. But then you're gonna have to be able to be offended. Well, that's possible. Because humans offend the other thing we're offensive. The other thing is that you actually take an opportunity to look around in the world that we live in. Because I think one of the things, and I get caught up in it as much as anybody, and and certainly, you know, we we we do a nine to five job, you go to work all the time. Um maybe Why do we hate that so much? I actually thought that was a great thing. Going to work. I enjoy it. But if you so many people hate it, Native Americans would take in the world. There was a spirituality of the world itself, you know, and our roles in it. Well, that's what I mean by philosophical. You've got to look intern. We're not in nature. We're not uh Fortunately, we're gonna kill that because of the data settings. That's true. But the other, you know, the other thing is too, is I mean, we don't, most people, you know, they don't think any further than the icebox in terms of like where the food comes from. Um, and maybe, maybe there will be a reawakening. This emergence, renewal, regeneration, remember, whatever you want to call it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we I hear that. I've heard this my whole life, and every every society and generation has kind of every couple of generations we go through this. That never happens. Well, it's true. Misery happens. Misery is a Well, they're gonna get a good dose of it. Now, what can we do about it? I think Well, they have to do something about it. We can just two old two old guys against AI just reflect on that's true. Thank God it's them instead of me. But I think that they need to start, you know, having serious discussions with their with their parents who have the ability to, you know, affect public policy and and and start to take a look and say, well, you know, what does my life look like? And unfortunately, most most working people are, you know, they're running in circles trying to support their family, um, and and keep a roof over their heads. And and that's perhaps part of the plan, is that you know you're kept so busy you don't have a chance to think about it. But as they have more time to think, maybe um it's a chance for them to stop and look at their future because what does that look like? What does that future look like? I hope it looks like demanding something better than what they're being on. Well, that's that's about what a boil, that's where I was going with that. You know, they they have the they have to ask is, you know, do have is the cost-benefit analysis of the direction that we're going now in the um I can't say post-digital world, but certainly post-innovative digital world, um, as to where we're going, is that is that good for them? And probably if they're if they're honest in their discussion, they're not gonna say that it is good for them. Well, maybe they're the ones who have ultimately shut this down. Well, possibly, because they're the ones that are gonna be the same. They're gonna the ones that have to compete with it. Yep. They're the ones that are gonna have to overcome it, yep. They're the ones that are gonna have to deal with the hardest, re harshest realities, although some of us who are older might, you know, who knows what that that's going to look like. Um, I mean, I don't know how you have social security payments when no one's has a job, but I mean, I I keep wondering about this. So I guess if I was to look at it from to come up with something that's positive here, is for those who are listening. Um, if you are not a Gen Zier, but maybe a millennial or a boomer or whatever, to stop and just think about where the future for our offspring is gonna shape into. Because what is this gonna look like for them? And if if if anything, as a parent, the most important thing is what kind of a world are we leaving for our children? And you know, and and I hear that, and it's gotten lip service for years, but maybe, maybe this time, maybe for the first time. You know, this mean it when we say it. This isn't a case of of saying, okay, yeah, well, you know, we're we're polluting the planet. We are providing a world that will be neutering the very essence of human life, and that's what we're going to be the gift to our children, because we just didn't kick our heels in and say, wait a minute, this is going too fast, too far, and changing the definition of everything. See you in the next episode.