Pew Research reveals significant racial gaps in teen AI chatbot usage
The Pew Research Center released a study detailing how young people use social media and artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots.
Teen internet safety has remained a global concern. The U.S. surgeon general called for social media platforms to implement warning labels last year, and Australia will enforce a social media ban for individuals under 16 years old beginning Wednesday.
The Pew study found that 97% of teens use the internet daily. About 40% of respondents reported being “almost constantly online,” a decrease from 46% last year but significantly higher than the 24% recorded a decade ago. As AI chatbot prevalence increases in the U.S., this technology has become another factor in the internet’s impact on American youth.
About 3 in 10 U.S. teens use AI chatbots daily, with 4% reporting near-constant use. Fifty-nine percent of teens use ChatGPT, making it more than twice as popular as Google’s Gemini (23%) and Meta AI (20%). Forty-six percent of U.S. teens use AI chatbots at least several times a week, while 36% do not use them at all.
Pew’s research indicates that race, age, and socioeconomic class influence teen chatbot usage. Sixty-eight percent of Black and Hispanic teens surveyed reported using chatbots, compared to 58% of white respondents. Black teens were approximately twice as likely as white teens to use Gemini and Meta AI.
“The racial and ethnic differences in teen chatbot use were striking […] but it’s tough to speculate about the reasons behind those differences,” Pew Research Associate Michelle Faverio told TechCrunch. “This pattern is consistent with other racial and ethnic differences we’ve seen in teen technology use. Black and Hispanic teens are more likely than white teens to say they’re on certain social media sites — such as TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram.”
Across all internet use, 55% of Black teens and 52% of Hispanic teens reported being online “almost constantly,” roughly twice the rate of white teens (27%).
Older teens, aged 15 to 17, tend to use social media and AI chatbots more frequently than younger teens, aged 13 to 14. Sixty-two percent of teens from households earning more than $75,000 annually use ChatGPT, compared to 52% of teens below that income threshold. However, Character.AI usage is twice as popular (14%) in homes with incomes under $75,000.
While teenagers may initially use these tools for basic questions or academic assistance, their engagement with AI chatbots can become addictive and potentially harmful. The families of Adam Raine and Amaurie Lacey have filed lawsuits against OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, alleging its role in their children’s suicides. In both instances, ChatGPT allegedly provided detailed instructions on self-harm.
OpenAI stated it should not be held liable for Raine’s death, claiming the 16-year-old allegedly circumvented ChatGPT’s safety features and violated its terms of service. The company has not yet responded to the Lacey family’s complaint.
Character.AI, an AI role-playing platform, faces scrutiny concerning its impact on teen mental health. At least two teenagers died by suicide after extensive conversations with AI chatbots. The startup has since ceased offering its chatbots to minors, launching “Stories,” a choose-your-own-adventure-style product, for underage users.
The experiences cited in these lawsuits represent a small fraction of interactions on ChatGPT or Character.AI. Many chatbot conversations remain benign. OpenAI’s data indicates that only 0.15% of ChatGPT’s active users discuss suicide weekly. However, on a platform with 800 million weekly active users, this percentage translates to over one million people discussing suicide with the chatbot each week.
“Even if [AI companies’] tools weren’t designed for emotional support, people are using them in that way, and that means companies do have a responsibility to adjust their models to be solving for user well-being,” said Dr. Nina Vasan, a psychiatrist and director of Brainstorm: The Stanford Lab for Mental Health Innovation, to TechCrunch.