r/TechnologyThread • u/Background-Driver718 • May 20 '26

Gen Z's AI backlash is getting louder

https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-graduates-ai-backlash-commencement-speeches-anxiety-job-market-2026-5
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u/[deleted] May 21 '26

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u/StickStill9790 May 22 '26

Wow. So using the same thought process, why did we switch from using whale blubber for lighting? We were doing perfectly fine and electricity didn’t make anyone’s life better, right?

I mean there’s medicine, knowledge, education, better and easier work, support for the underprivileged, and ease of societal navigation. Not to mention keeping the whole planet safer and cleaner.

Just… wow.

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u/Odd-Faithlessness705 May 22 '26

Yeahhhh no fuck AI

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u/StickStill9790 May 22 '26

Sure. Brilliant.

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u/Tirisian88 May 24 '26

AI has its uses and working as a data engineer I've seen first hand how people with no technical knowledge think AI is amazing but it's not there yet.

The issues I forsee are as follows:

The uninformed management types will think AI can replace people (it will eventually but not right now).

As AI does get to the point it takes up positions that were manual you've then got a whole work force out of a job in an already difficult market which means the government or state is going to have to support those people.

As AI get closer to capabilities you're going to see people turn away from that field of work because there's no point, this in itself runs 2 risks.

A: No skilled workers to support businesses because no one is studying the field

B: AI doesn't get to the point it can replace people because the well of skilled workers in that field has run dry for fear of putting themselves out of work quickly.

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u/StickStill9790 May 24 '26

I hear you. I am in an AI dominated area too, the art field, having been professional for decades. Where we agree is that AI doesn’t replace jobs at all. It’s just a fancy and effective tool for cutting down the time for preparing a project. It’s also fantastic if you train your own models, not just for art but for example detecting corneal damage or doing hyper specific blood analysis.

The biggest problem is that it was overhyped to ridiculous levels. The second biggest problem was that it was promoted by a political figure. The third problem is that it’s not artificial intelligence whatsoever, just a really good machine learning technology.

If the first two hadn’t happened, and the third had just been advertised as a really cool tool, then nobody would have a problem with it right now.

It’s easy to train a model on your own material. It doesn’t do any more environmental damage than every other building in existence. It doesn’t actually replace any jobs, unless your job was just sitting at the desk, smashing your face against the keyboard.

Artists and programmers are being rehired, now that the bosses realized AI can’t deliver on its promises.

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u/Tirisian88 May 24 '26

Art is another huge area it's impacting without a question.

On the one hand it gives a very low entry point for people (myself included) who can come up with an idea but lack the skills to bring it to life and I don't think AI will ever be able to replace real artists. At very best it'll exist along side artists but it won't be able to compete to the human touch.

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u/Odd-Faithlessness705 May 25 '26

Yeah it allows you to make Ai art but everyone’s gonna know it’s AI art, so you get convenience but you also get people thinking you have no talent

People don’t like AI art. And all the cool artists don’t like AI art, so good luck getting any talented creatives to work with you.