AI is here to stay, no matter whether we want it or not. While this technological revolution developing in unpresented speed has brought about much excitement, fear and anxiety is also abundant about its impacts on our work and life. Where does the future of AI lie? This question matters greatly for our own sake and for policymaking.
Imagining the Future of AI
In a recent study, we asked Ger-Zers to imagine specific future events related to AI. Research has shown that mentally simulating specific future events that may happen to oneself or to one’s social groups, often referred to as episodic future thinking, plays an important role in how individuals and groups plan, set goals, make decisions, and engage in civic activities. Imagining how the future of AI will transpire can shape one’s perceptions and actions toward this technology.
Undergraduate participants were asked to imagine as many exciting or worrying events as they could about AI that might happen in the near future (next year) or the distant future (in 10 to 15 years). Thus, each participant imagined four types of events (exciting-near future, worrying-near future, exciting-distant future, worrying-distant future), and they were given one minute for each type. Participants also completed measures for their attitudes toward AI, technological readiness, and political ideology.
We found that, for both the near and distant futures, participants imagined significantly more worrying events than exciting events. Most of the imagined worrying events concerned how AI might introduce ethical issues, increase unemployment, impair human cognition and decision-making, and threaten humankind. The imagined exciting events were mostly about the positive potentials of AI for making scientific breakthroughs, increasing work efficiency, and improving learning, cognition, and well-being.
There were also individual differences in the young people’s imagination of the future of AI. Participants who held more positive attitudes toward AI (e.g., believing that “AI will make this world a better place”) imagined more exciting relative to worrying events than those who had more negative attitudes. Also, participants who reported greater technological readiness (e.g., believing that “New technologies contribute to a better quality of life”) imagined more exciting relative to worrying events than those who were less ready.
Interestingly, participants who self-identified as more conservative imagined more exciting relative to worrying events than those who self-identified as more liberal. This finding reflects the recent widening partisan divide in how Americans view AI, with Democrats being more concerned than Republicans about the growing use of AI in everyday life.
Conclusion
Gen-Zers are generally unoptimistic about the future of AI, imagining more worrying than exciting events related to AI in the future. Personal beliefs and attitudes about AI and new technologies influence the future imagination; so does one’s political ideology. How young people mentally represent the future of AI has important policy implications for AI development and use.
References
Zhou, B., & Wang, Q. (2026). Episodic Future Thinking About Artificial Intelligence in Emerging Adults. Manuscript under preparation. Cornell University.