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What does “losing our humanity” mean here?
There is no single survey measure of “losing humanity.” The phrase gathers several concrete worries: that people might rely on AI instead of developing their own ideas, struggle to learn without assistance, lose influence over decisions, or feel that their work and relationships matter less.
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A 17-year-old quoted in a 2024 Center for Youth and AI report put the fear in personal terms: “I just hope that as AI gets more powerful, we don’t lose touch with what makes us human. I don’t want to live in a world where everything is just automated and we’re not needed anymore.” The statement captures a concern; it does not show that this outcome is happening to young people as a group.
How widespread is the unease—and who was surveyed?
Recent studies find both substantial AI use and concern, but their populations and questions differ. Their percentages should be read within each study, not combined into one estimate of how all Gen Z feels.
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| Study and group | What respondents reported | What the result describes |
|---|---|---|
| Gallup, 2026: 1,572 U.S. respondents ages 14–29; probability-based panel web survey fielded February 24–March 4, 2026 | 51% used generative AI daily or weekly. 31% felt angry, 42% anxious, 22% excited, and 18% hopeful about AI. | Self-reported use and feelings among U.S. young adults and teens in the survey’s age range. |
| Pew Research Center, 2026: U.S. teens ages 13–17; survey fielded September 25–October 9, 2025 | 57% had used chatbots to search for information, 54% for schoolwork, 47% for fun or entertainment, 16% for casual conversation, and 12% for emotional support or advice. | Reported chatbot uses among teens living with parents—not a measure of whether chatbots replace relationships. |
| EU Kids Online, 2026: representative survey of 28,465 children ages 10–16 in 19 European countries, conducted April 2025–April 2026 | Around two-thirds regularly used AI tools; four in ten worried that AI might surpass human intelligence in a way that prevents people from retaining control. | Children’s reported use and concerns across participating countries; national experiences vary. |
| Common Sense Media, 2026: first annual AI-use census of 1,204 children ages 9–17 | The organization reported that 86% used AI, nearly a quarter used it every day, and more than four in ten said a parent or guardian had never discussed AI safety with them. | Reported use and family conversations in this younger sample. |
These studies cover different ages, regions, time periods, and definitions of AI use. Gallup’s ages 14–29 sample includes some older Gen Z adults but not every age sometimes included in that generation; the child and teen surveys do not represent Gen Z adults. EU Kids Online’s lead author, Elisabeth Staksrud, cautions that “there is no single European digital childhood” and that national averages can hide differences in opportunities, risks, and everyday practices.
Why do young people worry about AI?
Learning and independent thought
In Gallup’s 2026 U.S. survey, 80% said it was very or somewhat likely that AI tools would make it harder for them to learn in the future. Respondents were expressing an expectation, not reporting a learning decline measured by a test. The distinction matters: concern about losing practice is not proof that AI has caused a loss of ability.
The same survey found that 38% thought AI would harm their ability to come up with ideas independently, compared with 31% who thought it would help. For thinking carefully about information, 42% expected harm and 25% expected help. Those answers suggest why the fear can feel personal: if a tool routinely supplies explanations or ideas, a user may wonder whether they are still doing enough of the thinking themselves.
Creativity, choice, and control
AI can produce suggestions quickly, but the user still faces choices about whether to accept, verify, revise, or reject them. The worry is not simply that a system can generate something; it is that people might defer to it or lose meaningful control as systems become more capable. In the EU Kids Online survey, four in ten children worried that AI might surpass human intelligence in a way that would prevent humans from retaining control.
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Work, purpose, and being needed
The fear that automation could make human effort seem unnecessary appears in the teen’s quoted statement. Gallup also found that employed respondents were more likely to say risks to the workforce outweighed benefits. These are concerns about trust, job prospects, and purpose—not evidence that AI has already removed a particular group’s work or value.
Relationships and emotional support
Some teens use chatbots for more than information or schoolwork. Pew found that 16% of U.S. teens had used them for casual conversation and 12% for emotional support or advice. Common Sense Media’s younger sample also reported AI use for personal concerns. Such use may raise questions about what a chatbot can provide and when a person needs another person, but these surveys do not establish that AI companionship displaces human relationships or causes loneliness.
Privacy and the surrounding online environment
Young people’s concerns also sit within broader worries about safety and control online. In EU Kids Online’s 2025 survey, 23% of children said they had been upset online in the past month, compared with 7% in 2020; 48% said they felt safe online, compared with 65% who reported always or often feeling safe in 2020. Co-author Sonia Livingstone noted that only half said their parents talked to them about what they did online, down from 66% in 2020. These findings describe the wider digital environment, not effects caused specifically by AI.
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No. The cited surveys measure reported feelings, expectations, and use; they do not demonstrate that AI has made Gen Z less intelligent, creative, empathetic, independent, or connected. Gallup’s finding that many respondents anticipate difficulty learning is not a measured learning outcome, and chatbot-use figures do not establish that human relationships have been replaced.
There is also no standalone figure in these studies for how many young people fear “losing their humanity.” The phrase is best understood as a concern that spans learning, creativity, work, agency, relationships, privacy, and control—not as a proven or quantified decline in human capacities.
How to read the generational picture
- Use and unease can coexist. Gallup found frequent use alongside increased anger and lower excitement and hope than in 2025. Using AI does not necessarily mean trusting it or welcoming every consequence.
- Different age groups are not interchangeable. A survey of children ages 9–17 cannot stand in for adults in their twenties; a U.S. teen result is not a European estimate.
- Different questions measure different things. Reported frequency, a feeling such as anxiety, and an expectation about future learning are not equivalent outcomes.
- Generations are not uniform. Age, country, family context, and everyday experience shape how people use AI and what they fear. EU Kids Online’s cross-country findings explicitly caution against treating an average as every child’s experience.
For additional context, a 2025 survey of U.S. adults by the Imagining the Digital Future Center found 41% expected human and AI co-evolution to change essential human traits for the better and worse in fairly equal measure; 25% expected mostly worse and 9% mostly better. That is an adult finding, not a Gen Z result, but it shows that questions about AI and human identity extend beyond young people.
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