Help Gen Z Thrive in The AI Age, Not Just Survive

New episode! And an open call for solutions.

Big news! We’ve got a new episode of Life With Machines! You can watch it on YouTube or listen on Apple Podcasts (and other podcast apps).

A few things that resonate for me from this episode:

1. “Young people deserve to be excited about their future.” That’s a line from the CEO of Young Futures, Katya Hancock, and she’s absolutely right. We’ve handed them climate, tech, democracy and economic crises. How about we don’t do that?

2. Young people didn’t choose to live on their phones and be drowned in technology. Us grownups need to stop with the judgment and finger-wagging and recognize that we did much more to create their digital habits than they did. That’s a perspective shared by college student Samin Bhan.

So here’s the big question and opportunity. How can we go from experimenting on young people to building a thriving future with tech with them? That’s what we set out to answer in our partnership with

Young Futures

. We’re doing a five-part series that explores the complex, sometimes harmful, sometimes creative relationship Gen Z (and those who come after them) has with AI.

This mini-series will explore some major topics: mental health and the loneliness epidemics, AI job market disruptions, toxic social media trends, AI companions replacing human relationships, and navigating AI use at school. This opening episode touches on the most pressing issues impacting Gen Z and provides insights on how to create a brighter technological future.

That’s where we’re going beyond alarm-ringing and talk. Young Futures has just launched the “Oops!...AI Did It Again” Challenge: a national call for bold, youth-informed ideas that help young people navigate an AI-driven world with agency, empathy, and support. We’ve invested billions in AI already, and now it’s time to invest in the generation growing up with it.

🔗 Applications are open now until October 24. Apply now!

We’ve seen the tragic headlines about youth and AI. Let’s create some better ones. Join us in understanding and influencing the future of AI with the next generation at the forefront.

Watch the full episode and share this opportunity with the educators, parents, and young people in your life. The next generation deserves better than to be our test subjects.