Gen Z's Future Is Being Shaped by AI — and They Have Something to Say About It

I don't often come out of a conversation about AI and democracy feeling hopeful. This one was different.

Ava Smithing and Sneha Revanur are two of the most influential young voices in tech policy in America right now. Ava is the Advocacy Director at the Young People's Alliance and has been at the centre of the KOSA debate in DC for years. She also hosted an amazing podcast called Left to Their Own Devices, which I can't recommend enough (and full disclosure we partnered with her on). Sneha founded Encode AI at 15. Politico called her the "Greta Thunberg of AI." She has since built an organization that's helped pass real legislation in California, New York, and at the federal level.

They are 24 and 21.

What struck me wasn't just their sophistication about the policy landscape, though they are that. It was that they made me think about AI in ways I simply hadn't before.

Sneha describing how her generation doesn't see AI as exceptional, because they've never known a technology whose business model wasn't built on exploiting them. Ava talking about what it means to grow up with platforms designed to manipulate your attention, and then be told the solution is more technology. Both of them pushing back on the idea that youth advocacy is about passion rather than expertise.

This conversation challenged me, and I think it will challenge you too.