Iowa Politics with Jeff Stein -- Thu. Aug. 27, 2026

Concerned, not excited.

I'm Jeff Stein with today's Iowa Politics Report.

For generations, we've joked that when some new technology comes out, from a new antenna for old style televisions back in the day to the latest online opportunity today, if you want to understand it or have it work, better get a young person, often one of your children.

But going forward, not so fast.

A new survey from the Pew Research Center shows that younger Americans are becoming increasingly skeptical of artificial intelligence, AI.

A majority, in fact, now say they are more concerned than they are excited about AI's growing role in our lives.

As AI becomes more widely used at work in schools and with consumer goods and services,

there is a growing shift in public opinion away from it.

The Pew survey of nearly 3,500 adults shows 55% of adults under the age of 30 are more concerned than excited.

Overall, the number concerned is 52% and that's a big jump from just five years ago when only 37% were concerned.

Today, only 9% of those surveyed say they are more excited than concerned about the growth of AI.

Obviously, we old folks are set in our ways and many of us have resisted AI at all turns.

But the growing concern among younger Americans is key, because they once stood out as the age group most receptive to new technology.

Not anymore.

Now that all might have to do with the possibility of AI taking our jobs.

Overall, 71% of Americans now believe AI will lead to fewer jobs in the U.S.

over the next 20 years.

That's up from just 64% only two years ago.

And young adults are leading that shift with 73% of the under 30 bunch saying AI will lead to fewer jobs in the next two decades.

In other words,

their prime work years.

Finally, something the seniors and the young adults agree on.

Technology has gone too far.

And that's the Iowa Politics Report for Thursday, August 27 on Twitter, Instagram, Gitter, Threads and Truth Social at Iowa Politics.

I'm Jeff Stein on News Talk 1540, KXEL.