Last year, Young Futures, a new nonprofit with billionaire backing and a mission to help young people thrive in an increasingly digital world, debuted with the aim of supporting nonprofits pursuing that goal. It’s done so through a series of funding challenges that address issues young people face today, like mental health, isolation and loneliness, and phones in schools. On October 15, Young Futures announced the grant recipients for its Here Comes the Fun challenge, which explores the important role of play in youth wellbeing. And last week, Young Futures rolled out its fifth challenge to date, Oops…! AI Did It Again, which aims to identify, support and scale innovative solutions to help young people thrive as AI becomes increasingly prevalent in every domain of life.
“The challenge addresses the urgent need to equip young people with the skills, knowledge and confidence to navigate AI, which is rapidly reshaping their learning, creativity, relationships and mental health,” as Young Futures puts it.
For the Oops…! AI Did It Again challenge, Young Futures will award up to 10 one-year grants ranging from $25,000 to $100,000. The challenge will identify and support organizations developing innovative tools and programs to foster the safe, positive use of AI in classrooms, online and in relationships. The goal is to help young people safely navigate the brave new AI world — and to provide adults the information they need to help them.
Young Futures highlights AI’s risks for young people
AI is everywhere these days, and its influence is growing as the technology becomes increasingly advanced. Many find it frightening, with concerns ranging from its impact on the job market, the environment and human relationships, to more dire prospects, like warfare conducted by killer robots and, ultimately, human annihilation. But as companies compete in a race to dominate the market, they’re paying little attention to the many possible dangers of this revolutionary technology.
Katya Hancock, Young Futures’ CEO, believes the failure to consider the potential downsides of the AI boom poses particular risks for young people. “Billions of dollars are flowing into the development of artificial intelligence, but almost none of it reaches the places where young people actually interact with these tools: classrooms, libraries, family homes and, let’s be honest, everywhere they’re online,” she wrote on LinkedIn. “We’ve invested heavily in the technology itself, but not in the people and systems that help teens use AI safely, critically, and with confidence.” The post is headlined “We poured billions into AI. We forgot the kids.”
Young people may not be getting the guidance they need to find their way safely through this new landscape, but that isn’t stopping them from exploring it anyway. Many are doing so alone and in secret, which can lead to anxiety and other potential mental health effects, as Young Futures notes. According to a recent study, half of young people report using AI. Common Sense Media found that close to 3 in 4 teens have used AI companions.
In conversations with young people, the Young Futures team learned they have mixed feelings about AI. Many worry about how it will affect their job prospects and about its impact on the climate, and are concerned that adults seem to be ignoring these very real threats. At the same time, many say AI can be a useful homework aid; others find genuine comfort from AI companions. “This is not to say we shouldn’t have regulation around AI and especially companion bots; they have not been designed with young people’s safety in mind and that is a huge problem,” Hancock told me. “But when we have these conversations around young people’s AI use, we have to come at it with empathy and try to understand where they’re coming from.”
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Young Futures was created with seed funding from Melinda French Gates’ Pivotal, the Susan Crown Exchange and The Goodness Web. Other foundational partners include Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, the Enlight Foundation, and Resonance Philanthropies, a DAF funded by Sheri Sobrato, a member of the Sobrato family, that is housed at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.
Other funders contribute to specific Young Futures challenges; Here Comes the Fun was supported by Niantic Spatial, for example. For the most recent challenge, the Bezos Family Foundation, Hopelab, Omidyar Network and Pinterest (which also provided support for a challenge addressing phones in schools), are also providing funding.
Young Futures has benefited from growing concern about mental health — in society as a whole and in the philanthrosphere in particular. This concern has been spurred by the widespread mental health crisis, with young people at particular risk. Mindful Philanthropy, which was created to raise awareness of the issue among funders, has worked to do just that by offering research, regular convenings, support and calls to action, but investments still lag behind the urgent need.
In the face of the ongoing youth mental health crisis, Young Futures has plans to expand its reach. In September, during the Clinton Global Initiative’s annual meeting, the Young Futures team announced YF500, a collaborative funding vehicle that the organization calls “a first-of-its-kind philanthropic index fund.” The goal is to support the development of a national network of organizations working toward youth wellbeing. “This five-year, $50 million commitment will fund, connect and amplify 500 nonprofit leaders across the United States who are working at the critical intersection of youth, technology and mental health,” according to the announcement.
The YF500 fund aims to build a community of organizations like the ones whose work Young Futures has amplified through its challenges. The goal is to break down silos and enable organizations to collaborate and share ideas in a way that strengthens them all.
“It’s really a commitment to scaling our work,” Hancock said. “We’ve done four funding challenges now and funded 35 grantees, and we see the work they’re doing individually and as a collective as being super impactful in the lives of young people. They’re doing amazing things in their communities and we feel strongly that if we want to make a more systemic impact, we have to scale it. It’s an invitation for like-minded funders to support these early-stage nonprofits together; it allows funders to share some of the risk and get involved in a new space.”
Young Futures already has commitments amounting to 40% of its $50 million goal, and Hancock is hoping more funders will sign on. “The plan is simple: Invest in the people and places teens already trust, link them together, and give them the tools to move faster and learn together,” she wrote when the fund was announced. In a recent interview, she added, “The work of each individual organization is so important, but imagine it as a connected ecosystem.”
