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US teens from richer families are more likely to have heard of ChatGPT

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New data that has been released by Pew Research suggests that teenagers from households with a higher income are more likely to have heard of ChatGPT. It looked at kids from households earning $75,000 or more, $30,000 — $75,000, and those in households with less than $30,000.

Pew Research asked teens between 13 and 17 if they had ever heard of ChatGPT or of another AI that's capable of generating text. The poorer a family was, the less likely it was that teens in that home had heard of ChatGPT. Here's a break-down of teens from each income bracket and if they have heard of ChatGPT or not:

Percentage of US teens ages 13 to 17 who have heard about ChatGPT based on income (those who didn't answers aren't shown)
Household income per year Have heard about ChatGPT Have NOT heard about ChatGPT
Less than $30,000 67% 32%
Between $30,000 and $75,000 69% 31%
Above $75,000 84% 16%

Thankfully, from 2023 to 2024, the kids from the lower income bracket who had heard of ChatGPT had increased substantially (+26% points) compared to the higher-income groups (+10% points on average), but they still lagged behind nonetheless.

Economic factors were not the only determinant that affected if kids had heard of ChatGPT. Race and ethnicity play a part too with 83% of White teens having heard about ChatGPT compared to 73% of Black teens and 74% of Hispanic teens. Overall, 79% of teens have heard of ChatGPT compared to just 67% in 2023.

When asked if it's acceptable to use ChatGPT for homework, 42% said it's unacceptable to use it to write essays while 18% said it was permissible, and another 18% said they don't know — those who don't know about ChatGPT or didn't answer are excluded from this breakdown.

Things changed a bit when we got onto everybody's favorite subject — mathematics. Those who said it's unacceptable to use ChatGPT to solve math problems fell to just 28%, while 29% said it's acceptable and 21% were not sure. Lastly, they were asked about using ChatGPT for research.

Just 9% said that you shouldn't use ChatGPT for research, 54% said it was acceptable, and 15% were not sure. Pew Research also revealed that teens admitting to using ChatGPT in any capacity for school work rose from 13% in 2023 to 26% in 2024. Black and Hispanic students (31%) were more likely to use it compared to White students (22%), and kids in higher grades were more likely to use it than those in lower grades: Grades 7 and 8 (20%), 9 and 10 (26%), and 11 and 12 (31%).

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