An Alarming Number of Gen Z AI Users Think It’s Conscious

From the article: Gen Z has a complicated relationship with AI: They see it as a humanlike friend, but also as a foe that could replace their jobs and take over the world, according to a new study by EduBirdie.

A survey of 2,000 people found 25% think AI is “already conscious”; 50% say it isn’t now but will be in the future. Most use it as a productivity tool (54%), but also as a friend (26%), therapist (16%), fitness coach (12%), and even a romantic partner (6%). They’re also using it to help solve relationship spats, as one Redditor posted.

It’s no surprise that social media parodies poke fun at AI-obsessed young people who are overly dependent on ChatGPT for basic functions like responding to a question.

In their conversations with tools like ChatGPT, most try to be polite, saying “please” and “thank you.” Society has long grappled with how humans should interact with humanlike machines like Amazon’s Alexa. Some parents worry that Alexa’s high tolerance for rudeness instills poor behavior in their kids, according to Quartz. Others disagree, saying we should teach kids to be rude to machines to underscore the point that they are not human.

Perhaps they see the bot as their coworker because 62% of Gen Z folks use AI at work. With trends like agentic AI and models customized to perform specific job functions, this is already becoming a reality. At one point, OpenAI considered selling a $20,000 AI model to replace Ph.D.-level researchers.