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Artificial intelligence could “kill us all by the end of the decade,” according to a thread on X written by Jacob Coxon, a former Anthropic researcher who resigned on Sept. 8. His words were amplified and echoed by many in his industry over early September, but as warnings about AI’s potential to threaten humanity continue to make headlines, how seriously is Gen Z taking them, and do young people see AI as a threat to their future?
A new KPMG Canada survey found that 75 per cent of Canadian students use generative AI for schoolwork, while 51 per cent say it has worsened their critical-thinking skills and 69 per cent believe their peers rely on it to avoid critical thinking. The KPMG survey included more than a thousand Canadian students from highschool and post-secondary institutions.
“I say that it’s currently a bit of a Wild West in the sense that people are using it, but we don’t really know what the long-term effects of using it will be,” says Jackie Chi Kit Cheung, an associate professor of computer science at McGill University and a core academic member of Mila Quebec AI Institute.
Cheung says he has noticed that some of his students are not coming to office hours as much because they can use AI to answer their questions instead. He says AI can “reduce the friction of learning,” allowing students to test themselves and generate questions, but that can also give them the perception that they have learned something without necessarily being able to apply it later.
“We need a systematic way to think about the benefits and harms of AI,” says Cheung.
That broader concern is also reflected in how young Canadians are engaging with AI. A 2026 study from Toronto Metropolitan University’s Diversity Institute and the Association of Canadian Studies found that in surveying 1,700 Canadians, more than half of respondents aged 18 to 24 know someone whose AI use they consider to be cheating.
But their relationship with AI extends beyond how often they use it. A recent study from Simon Fraser University found that young Canadians are also discussing the impacts of AI.
The Gen(Z)AI project brought 100 Canadians ages 17 to 23 from Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and Halifax to discuss issues regarding AI chatbots, misinformation and data privacy.
The project found that Gen Z were using AI “often extensively” while also expressing their lack of trust toward the platforms, governments and incentives surrounding the technology, according to the project’s co-lead.
“I think there’s a bystander effect, particularly with Gen Z,” said Jake Hirsch-Allen, director of partnerships at The Dais at Toronto Metropolitan University and a public AI fellow. “I also think Gen Z, though, is more aware of the challenges with technology than certainly the boomers and even to some extent my generation.”
Hirsch-Allen says people do not have to choose between discussing the potential long-term risks of AI and looking at how it is affecting people now.
“I think humans can walk and chew gum at the same time.”
But while research and experts can show how young people are engaging with AI, students themselves offer a closer look at how they view the technology and its potential risks.
“It is pretty scary. It is definitely possible,” said Hannah Shijaku, a fourth-year architecture science student at Toronto Metropolitan University, when asked about the possibility of AI threatening humanity.
Shijaku says the possibility concerns her, but she doesn’t think about it regularly. For her, the concern would become more immediate if there were clearer signs that AI was advancing to the point of seriously harming or causing wider damage.
“If things don’t get worse, I guess it’ll be fine. But I don’t know, I don’t really know what’s happening right now,” she says.
At first, she relied on AI more heavily for schoolwork, including using it to write assignments, before realizing it was affecting her ability to think and write independently.
“I wasn’t able to quickly write things, quickly create my own thoughts. I depended on it a little bit too much.”
That experience made her more cautious about how she uses the technology, but she says she still sees AI as something that depends largely on the individual using it.
“I know a lot of people who use it responsibly and a lot of people who don’t,” she says.
While Shijaku sees AI’s potential threat as something that could become more serious in the future, some are more worried about how people are relying on it now.
“There are so many people out here in the world, and you’re using an AI,” says Alva Obando Goodridge, a first-year language and intercultural studies student at Toronto Metropolitan University.
Obando Goodridge says that warnings about its potential risks are relevant and she worries people are becoming too dependent on AI.
“I’ve seen warnings, and I’m like, why are we still doing this?” she says. “They’re acting like they need this and that we need this, but we’ve lived and evolved perfectly fine without it.”
Obando Goodridge says her concerns grew after seeing how relying on AI affected her own independence.
“I came to the realization that I can’t do anything for myself,” she says, describing how she relied more heavily on AI in high school before deciding to stop.
She says Gen Z aren’t powerless to shape what happens next, but learning more about AI could make them more willing to act.
“If more people in my generation were to learn about it, maybe they’d want to do something.”
Reporter, OTR, F2026.
