—J Studios—Getty ImagesYoung people are pushing back on AI hype, and that is a good thing. Several commencement speakers this graduation season have been booed for saying AI is the next revolution. There have also been clapbacks against celebrities who say women should embrace AI or risk being left behind. Young people's reactions might be seen as expressions of fear or naivety. But as the leader of an organization that has worked with hundreds of thousands of young people over the past decade, I see something different. Their skepticism toward AI signals that they want a voice in building the future. Young people are not anti-technology; they are demanding that technology be built thoughtfully. What young people are pushing back against is an industry that prioritizes quickly deploying AI everywhere before addressing the ethics, equity, and environmental impact issues that accompany it. No generation has more at stake in the AI era than young people. As the technology reshapes everything from their job prospects to their mental health, they have every reason to be skeptical and ask hard questions. This critical eye may be viewed as rebellious, but as we enter the AI era, we desperately need young people to keep asking more from our technology.In this vein, we have recently seen young people flooding social media with analog creations such as cyberdecks as a quiet form of protest. Cyberdecks are homemade, custom portable computers assembled from salvaged parts and designed entirely on their own terms. Some decorate their cyberdecks with nail polish and earrings, or house them within rugged carrying cases to hold an off-grid survival device. The function of cyberdecks can be anything the user designs it to be, ranging from e-readers to photo storage. Building these pieces is about self-expression and creating something personal that reflects how they want tech to function in their lives. This generation’s fluency with tech allows them to expertly disassemble it and recreate their cyberdecks into what they want them to be. This creativity shows us that what looks like disengagement from AI can actually be discernment. Young people have a lifetime of experience with tech and are not blind consumers. They are creators. And we need young people to play this crucial role. If we want to solve society’s most intractable problems and to ensure that the AI era benefits all of society, we need young, bold, and bright creators who are invested in our collective future. When young people disengage from AI, the industry loses more than their future workforce. It loses a generation of voices whose lived experiences can help shape technology that works for everyone, not a select few. We have seen what happens when inclusivity is absent. Hiring algorithms built on narrow data favor men and systematically screen out women and candidates from underrepresented backgrounds. For instance, one German study found that large language models, such as ChatGPT, consistently advised women to ask for lower salaries than men in recruitment processes. And researchers in the UK have found that AI healthcare tools trained predominantly on data from white male patients can produce diagnoses and treatment recommendations that fail everyone else. AI that does not work for everyone does not actually work.AI industry leaders have a choice. They can ignore youth skepticism or receive it as input. If they choose to listen, developers will need to take meaningful steps to win over youth. It means building mentorship that brings young people along. It means listening to the concerns around AI’s impact on people and the planet and taking action. It means companies being transparent about their AI policies so that employees feel empowered to engage with AI rather than apprehensive about what it could mean for their careers, its impact on others, or the world at large. This is a generation that refuses to accept AI uncritically. They want to build technology on better terms and are not standing in the way of progress. They are the best argument for what progress could actually look like. The industry leaders who earn their trust will build technology worthy of the future they hope to create.