Young people trust artificial intelligence more than any other age group, but trust democracy less. Is there a relationship?
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Generative artificial intelligence (genAI) technology allows people to produce content cheaply and rapidly. While it can be used for many productive purposes, genAI can also increase the spread of harmful content like genAI-driven misinformation (known as “AI hallucinations”) and other content intentionally designed to deceive or manipulate. The proliferation of genAI—with all its risks and rewards—comes at a time when young Canadians are spending increasing time on social media and are thus more likely to encounter online mis- and disinformation. Compared to older generations, young Canadians trust genAI tools more—but have less confidence in democracy.
Is there a relationship between young Canadians’ trust in genAI technology, declining trust in democratic institutions, and the spread of genAI-powered mis/disinformation? As genAI becomes increasingly commonplace, understanding these relationships are important for depolarizing the genAI debate while simultaneously building and reinforcing trust in democracy.
Trust in genAI is highest among young Canadians
The use of genAI tools in Canada is rapidly growing. Over 66 percent of Canadian adults report using genAI at least once for either leisure, work, or study, according to a 2025 survey by the Social Media Lab at Toronto Metropolitan University. While research is mixed about whether genAI usage rates among Canadian youth are higher than those of other age groups, Gen Z and Millennial Canadians reported higher levels of familiarity with AI (83 percent and 71 percent, respectively) compared to Gen Xers (61 percent) and Baby Boomers (38 percent) in a 2025 Ipsos survey. Similarly, younger Canadians who use AI use it consistently. Research by KPMG in 2024 found that over 60 percent of Canadian students used genAI several times per week.
High familiarity with and frequent usage of genAI among Canadian youth appear to correlate with a higher level of trust in genAI. In a 2025 Abacus Data survey, 57 percent of Canadians aged 18-29 reported completely or mostly trusting AI to be used safely and responsibly in society, compared to just 21 percent of respondents aged 60 and above.
Young Canadians are lukewarm about democracy
These demographics flip when looking at levels of trust in democracy and Canadian democratic institutions. Just 67 percent of Canadians aged 16-29 agreed with the statement “democracy may have problems, but it is better than any other form of government” in a 2024 survey by the Dais—the lowest percentage of any age group surveyed. Similarly, a survey conducted by DPS in July 2025 showed that only 48 percent of respondents aged 18-29 agreed with the statement “Democracy is preferable to any other form of government,” compared to 80 percent of respondents aged 55 and above.
This distrust also extends to Canadian democratic institutions specifically. Respondents in the youngest age group (16-29) of the Dais survey were the least likely to agree with the statement “in Canadian elections, votes are counted correctly,” while just 51 percent of respondents aged 18-29 agreed with the statement “I trust the results of the recent Canadian federal election” (versus 74 percent of respondents aged 55+).
Broad concern about the impacts of genAI on democracy
Canadians are also concerned about the effects of genAI on Canadian democracy, with 67 percent of respondents to the Social Media Lab survey worrying about its potential impact on future elections. Additional research shows that Canadians are right to be concerned about the manipulation of Canada’s information ecosystem through genAI tools. In another survey by the Dais in 2025, 67 percent of Canadian respondents reported seeing deepfakes or synthetic media online (which are often AI-generated) at least a few times a year. Deepfakes about celebrities were the most common type that Canadians encountered, closely followed by deepfakes of Canadian politicians.
Is there a relationship between trust in genAI and distrust in democracy?
Despite the explosion of research on genAI usage in Canada as well as the public’s eroding trust in Canadian democratic institutions, much of it does not focus specifically on young Canadians—the group most likely to trust genAI. Existing research shows that there appears to be a correlation between trust in genAI and distrust in democracy, and that genAI-driven misinformation is proliferating across the internet. Whether there is a direct relationship between these factors is unclear.
At a moment of profound change in how information is created and consumed in the digital age, it is critical to untangle the relationship between genAI-driven mis/disinformation, (dis)trust in genAI, and (dis)trust in Canadian institutions among Gen Z and millennial Canadians. Understanding how these factors impact one another will allow policymakers and civil society develop evidence-based strategies to strengthen young Canadians’ engagement with democratic institutions to reinforce and reinvigorate Canadian democracy.