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Saturday, 19 September 2026
The people versus AI: Young people pushing back against artificial intelligence.
Almost two-thirds of Australians believe AI is moving too fast, and most say the risks outweigh the benefits, according to a study by The Minderoo Foundation. (ABC News: Sharon Gordon)
There's an episode of The Twilight Zone, from late 1960, in which newlyweds Don and Pat Carter take shelter in an Ohio diner after their car breaks down en route to New York City.
Neither expects to be there long; an emergency mechanic just so happens to be around the corner.
To pass the time, Don, played by a young William Shatner, starts feeding pennies into a fortune-telling napkin holder: a grinning devil's head answering yes-or-no questions for a penny-a-pop.
What starts as harmless prompts soon becomes a compulsion as the machine somehow starts nailing the questions. Next thing you know, Don's stuck in a loop, unable to leave the restaurant without asking the machine's thoughts.
William Shatner's character, Don Carter, becomes increasingly reliant on the thoughts of the fortune-telling machine as the episode continues. (Getty Images: CBS Photo Archive)
More than 60 years later, the machines answering our questions cost significantly more than a penny, and a new generation of young people are feeling trapped.
Instead of fortune telling, their battle is with AI: a different kind of machine that answers with unsettling confidence and is getting harder to put down.
Elise Humphreys, 19, has never seen the episode. But it's exactly how she feels about AI.
"It stops me from being able to use my brain independently,"
she said.
Elise Humphreys says her friends are all against the widespread use of AI. (ABC News: West Matteeussen)
Ms Humphreys is studying a double degree in International Relations and International Business at Perth's Curtin University, which encourages the "ethical" use of AI.
She's part of a generation that grew up fluent in technology — and one that studies show is increasingly hostile to it.
"I think all kids are feeling like this … we're scared, we don't want it to affect us long term, and we don't want to live in a world that's run by robots," she said.
"It feels like a cheat code to me. It feels like I'm not going to be as smart as the people who are currently in the field that I want to be in — because of AI."
The latest Gallup study on AI in the US found gen Z's approach to the tool has "significantly" worsened, and that the majority of young people fear its use comes at a cost — particularly to learning.
Ms Humphreys admits she does fall into the trap of using AI. If she doesn't, she said, she'll be left behind.
"I want to be able to create my own thoughts, my own opinion, rather than being reliant on AI … but I think that for me, studying, I can't study without it," she said.
Elise Humphreys says AI "feels like a cheat code". (ABC News: West Matteeussen)
The state of play
In the space of a week or so, calls to slow artificial intelligence down have gone from the margins of public debate to its centre.
The public's on board: almost two-thirds of Australians believe AI is moving too fast, according to a recent study by the Minderoo Foundation. Most think the risks AI poses outweigh the benefits.
But AI isn't going anywhere, no matter how vociferously its protesters — many of whom have taken on the tongue-in-cheek name of decelerators or 'decels' — may argue the point.
Jenson Rainbird, a 16-year-old high school student from Melbourne, is happy to take part in the technical deceleration by avoiding AI as much as possible.
"My [friendship] group vehemently hates AI — we do not like it one bit,"
he said.
He's tried to cut it out of his life, though it still creeps in through Google searches and other study tools.
Jenson Rainbird says he avoids AI wherever possible. (ABC News: Danielle Bonica)
Jenson wants to be a lawyer when he finishes school and university. But for now, he feels locked out of the discussion about AI by virtue of the fact that he's too young to have a say in how it's implemented.
"We're going to be dealing with the leftovers and downsides to what the politicians and others are doing [about AI regulation], and we don't get a say in it," he said.
Jenson Rainbird says he's not worried about falling behind without AI. (ABC News: Danielle Bonica)
"We can protest and all that, but we can't actually vote. We could try and go into a minister's office or something like that, but they won't listen to us."
Where Jenson Rainbird avoids AI, his father Justin has gone the other way entirely.
"If you don't get on board, you're going to fall behind," Mr Rainbird said.
AI use is a KPI (key performance indicator) at Mr Rainbird's work. He sees it as an economic tool. It's not taking someone else's job, he argues; it's adding value a company couldn't afford in the first place.
"I might be taking a coder's job, but not really, because there's no way we would have got funds to do the coding that it's doing for me. It just wouldn't have been economical," he said.
Jenson and Justin Rainbird hold different views on AI. (ABC News: Danielle Bonica)
"I find generative AI quite disturbing and horrifying. AI in and of itself has some good uses like in medicine and stuff, but it's the generative AI that I find quite abhorrent," she said.
It doesn't take long for Ingrid to run up a veritable laundry list of AI pitfalls: gender and racial bias, its contribution towards misogyny, ethical issues, and a feeling of generational powerlessness.
But chief among her concerns are the environmental impacts.
"It ruins the environment," Ingrid said. "And we live in a drought-prone country already, so that's the major thing for me."
Ingrid has four siblings, and her concerns about AI are far from a taboo topic at the kitchen table. Her mother, Cat Miedecke, a teacher and master's student, shares her family's concerns.
The CEO of Anthropic, Dario Amodei, recently published an essay with the headline, We Must Pace the Frontier. (Reuters: Dado Ruvic)
She said one of her children had a photo uploaded to an AI model without his consent. She said that picture, which included other students and a teacher, was then digitally manipulated and included one person performing a Nazi salute.
"What's terrifying is that you can do all the right things as a parent: you cannot have them on social media at younger ages, and they're still impacted by this," she said.
"We actually need to teach them to learn how to think … everybody keeps saying, 'Oh, well, we need our kids to know how to use it', but actually we really don't."
Escaping Twilight Zone
There's a clip that has been doing the rounds on social media of comedian Ronny Chieng delivering a class day address to a bunch of graduating Harvard students.
"Can I just say: f**k AI," he said, to a mixed round of applause and laughter.
"I'm here to tell you the mission of your generation is to destroy AI."
"The young people are not happy about this; they don't want it [AI]. It doesn't have any place in the arts," she said.
"Our government needs to do more about it in the education space to preserve our nation's future and ability to think."
In The Twilight Zone, the concept of free thought is what eventually pulls Don back from the brink. His new bride, Pat, pulls him from his reverie.
"You have a mind, a wonderful mind. Don't destroy it trying to justify that cheap penny fortune machine to yourself," she said.
The pair embrace, leave a tip, and then walk out the diner door arm-in-arm. They're swiftly replaced by another couple who start feverishly feeding the fortune-telling machine.
More than 60 years on, in many ways, not a lot has changed.
We are still asking machines for answers, and young people are still looking for the door out of the diner.
Who asked the question?
Elise Humphreys is concerned about the use of AI. (ABC: West Matteeussen)
Elise Humphreys from WA reached out to the ABC via Your Say to share her concerns about AI.
"As a 19 year old, me and my friends and everyone I know doesn't want AI," she wrote.
"AI is a tool, but it's being used in the wrong way. It's going to take away our jobs and kill the environment. Why is the older generation messing it up so bad for us?"
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