At the same time, almost half (48%) say their schools allow them to use at least one AI tool, and a third (30%) use AI every day or almost every day for learning and creative work.
Grzegorz Święg of the OffSchool Foundation notes: “NotebookLM lets you work efficiently with large volumes of text — pulling out the key data, making summaries and syntheses. It’s a closed environment into which you can upload research, analyses or texts to get the information you need quickly, without having to read everything from start to finish.”
Jagoda Zakrzewska of Google Polska adds: “Today it’s hard to imagine life — professional or personal — without artificial intelligence. It may surprise listeners, but in fact we all use AI every day — we just often don’t even realise it.”
Consciously or not, we meet artificial intelligence everywhere today. We open apps and maps, plan a route — and it is AI that charts the way for us. There is no spam in our inbox because AI filters it out. We use a translation tool — that, too, is artificial intelligence at work.
“If you take a broader view, across society as a whole, you could say that teenagers are coping pretty well. They already understand what the internet is for, and on the whole they are aware of the risks it can bring,” Grzegorz Święg continues.
Teenagers and biological limits
An interesting theme that came up in the discussion at the launch was the idea that teenagers are people whose ability to anticipate the future is still biologically limited. Although we all have these limitations to some degree, excessive time spent phone in hand has its consequences — including fatigue, poorer concentration, changes in how information is perceived, and other things that affect mental comfort and well-being. And this is something teenagers do not yet fully control.
In other words, they understand that it can be harmful, but they don’t always realise how strongly it draws them in and wears them out. They try to work on it, set themselves certain limits, look for a balance.
At the same time, if you look more broadly — at society as a whole — teenagers are today one of the most aware groups: they understand well what the internet is for, how to use it, what risks it carries and how to deal with them.
The impact of time online
If, on a day when something needs to get done, a person spends several hours aimlessly scrolling through a feed, then after such a “session” their ability to think logically, concentrate and process information is noticeably lower than it was at the start.
Jagoda Zakrzewska stresses: “The generation that is now in its teens or just entering adulthood finds its way around the digital world far better than we, the previous generations, do. The reports show clearly that these young people are aware of the risks Grzegorz talked about. They check information — and that deserves to be underlined as boldly as possible, with a big plus sign and exclamation marks. In other words, they do what we often don’t, and what the previous generations of our parents and grandparents didn’t either. They are also aware of how important it is to balance online and offline activities. And that is exactly what gives us grounds to look to the future with optimism and hope, especially as technology develops.”
One interesting point is how aware teenagers are of their time online. During the detailed analysis of the study — although not all the data made it into the official report — some participants made interesting comments. For example, when asked “who at home spends the most time on their phone?”, they answered in different ways: Dad — until quite late; the teenager — stops about an hour before bed, to rest a little from the white light of the screen; while the one who sat on it longest was Grandad, because he was playing a game on his phone. This illustrates nicely that young people’s level of digital awareness is much higher than that of their parents or grandparents. In the older generation there is often an element of fascination — total immersion and uncritical time spent online — whereas a teenager sets themselves limits, such as an hour before bed, simply to rest from screens and white light.
AI as a tutor and a spur to creativity
Jagoda Zakrzewska adds: “For them, artificial intelligence is like a tutor available around the clock, ‘on demand’, who can adapt to specific needs and tasks — helping them prepare for a biology, chemistry or physics test, for example. Those of us who have already left school would surely have liked such a tutor too, one who at eight o’clock on a Sunday evening will still explain how to solve an integral, calculate an area or balance a chemical equation. I personally remember how much time that used to take me.”
As for creativity, there is a stereotype that artificial intelligence kills it, because it does so many things for us. The study’s findings, however, suggest otherwise: young people say outright that, on the contrary, their creativity is awakened and developed thanks to AI.
Grzegorz Święg adds: “As with any new tool, first comes a wave of criticism, and only then do we begin to appreciate its real value. According to the study’s findings, young people say very clearly that artificial intelligence helps them develop their creativity. In particular, AI supports them in creating all kinds of content and writing assignments, suggesting new ideas for solving problems. In creative writing, visual art, design and crafts, as well as in video editing — AI becomes a tool that extends human capabilities. Even direct interaction with AI helps develop one’s own ideas: you can put in your initial thoughts, and the system helps to structure them, shape a concept and turn the original idea into a finished result. In other words, AI doesn’t replace creativity; it helps to realise and amplify it.”
Dr. Myroslav Trofymuk
Born in Lviv. Designer, director, musician, researcher, founder of ZEMLA STUDIO. Master of classical philology and digital marketing, PhD in the history of Ukrainian literature. Member of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine. Since 2022 he has authored the CENTRUM MUNDI audio show for Polish Radio for Ukraine, continuing the same research into the contemporary music scene in Ukraine and Poland.
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