“Don’t Make Me Talk to a Robot”: Youth Perspectives on AI in Care Contexts

There is growing interest in the use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in youth service sectors. While these technologies offer potential efficiencies, their use raises important ethical, relational, and governance questions when working with young people. Partnering with the Youth Affairs Council Victoria (YACVic), we undertook a series of co-design workshops with youth workers and young people. Our workshops explored how GenAI is currently being used across youth-serving contexts, the opportunities and risks associated with its adoption, and the conditions necessary for responsible implementation. Practitioners described areas where AI can assist with workload, including drafting reports, summarising documents, and planning programmes. They often described its usefulness “when time-poor” or as a way to “spend more time with young people”. Young people focused more clearly on where GenAI should not intrude on trust, care, privacy, and decision-making. They centred the need for “open and honest conversations” with youth workers and the refusal to “talk to a robot”. Importantly, this paper demonstrates that both groups are concerned with responsible AI use, which they approach it from different lived pressures: workload and workflow on one side, relational trust on the other. This paper examines the tensions for policy and practice for GenAI use in the youth sectors.

keywords: generative artificial intelligence; youth services; community engagement; Australia

• with: Joel McGregor (lead), Caleb Lloyd, Abigail Sheed, Sam Champion, Prathiksha Ashok Raj Kumar
• year: June 2026 — ongoing