By New York Post (U.S.) | Created at 2026-08-21 20:30:54 | Updated at 2026-08-21 21:02:51
51 minutes ago
The overwhelming majority of millennial and Gen Z Americans view the world’s richest tech CEOs, including Mark Zuckerberg, Sam Altman and Elon Musk, as “super villains” — and it could be causing the surge in support for socialism, according to a new survey.
When given the names of key figures in the AI industry, the majority of respondents, aged 18 to 34, didn’t trust a single one. The survey was conducted by CNBC’s Generation Labs.
The most untrustworthy tech titan in their eyes was Palantir CEO Alex Karp, with 81% declaring they don’t have faith he would act responsibly and with the general public’s best interest at heart.
Three-quarters of young adults (75%) admitted they don’t trust Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai or Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk all had roughly 70% of respondents saying they don’t trust them.
The most trustworthy AI overlord was Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, yet 65% of millennial and Gen Z respondents said he was shady.
“I would say they’re like super villains; they’re just speeding up the end of the world,” said Anthony Simpson, 28, an investor with a deep interest in the tech and AI industry.
“They’re not doing anything for the greater good; they’re doing it for themselves and hurting the quality of water, air, food, and more — all so they can make more money, and for what? It’s not like they don’t have plenty of it already,” he bemoaned.
That is a sharp contrast to just a decade ago, when graduating millennials rushed to tech giants like Google, Facebook and Apple in pursuit of jobs on the cutting edge of tech and AI — and when figures like Musk and Zuckerberg had positive approval ratings, according to multiple polls from 2016.
“Years ago [Zuckerberg] was thought of as such a smart, creative person and we were grateful because Facebook gave us a way of connection,” Marlee Lopez, 27, told The Post.
“But it seems to me that when a lot of these tech guys reach a certain level of wealth, it stops being about connecting people and more about how they can continue building their empire. Elon Musk just became a trillionaire; imagine what that money could do for the world?” she said.
“Yet, there’s a housing crisis, the food is all poison, people can’t afford child care and medical coverage, etc,” Lopez added.
She and Simpson also pointed out that in 2015, Altman infamously admitted on camera at a conference that he believes AI will likely lead to the end of the world.
“That right there just shows you, they don’t really care about us, it’s all about profit,” Simpson said.
The growing anger and disillusionment at what Simpson and Lopez described as their “billionaire overlords” is also bleeding into a growing distrust of the government.
It is likely responsible for the surge in young people embracing socialism, according to the poll and statements given to The Post.
Almost half of the 1,000 18-34-year-old Americans surveyed by CNBC said they held favorable views of the Democratic Socialists of America, while 80% held a negative view of the American economy, according to the poll.
“The government is enabling them by failing to place any boundaries and just letting them run rampant, hurting the environment, the water supply, and hoarding wealth that could be reinvested into making the world a better place,” Simpson said.
