Meet Gen Beta, starting to be born in 2025

• It'll be the second generation besides Alpha — whose births span from about 2010 through 2024 — born entirely in the 21st century.

State of play: Projected to reach about 2.1 billion people, Beta would be the second largest cohort following Alpha's 2 billion, per Mark McCrindle, a social researcher and demographer who coined "Generation Alpha" and determined its bounds.

• By 2035, the age group will make up 16% of the global population, according to McCrindle, who founded Australia-based McCrindle Research.

Yes, but: We don't know what's entirely in store for the Betas.

• Specific boundaries between generations become more clear as each cohort grows up, said Jean Twenge, the author of "Generations: The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers and Silents — and What They Mean for America's Future."
• "Technology is what really causes the differences between the generations," she said.

The intrigue: Generative AI is defining the moment the Betas enter the world. Ultimately, their lived experience will be determined by what sticks and how.

• The tech that shapes social relationships ends up having the biggest impact on an age group, Twenge said. With Gen Z, that was social media, and for Gen Alpha, it's "virtual worlds" like Minecraft or Roblox.
• If generative AI becomes so ingrained that young people with "AI friends and AI boyfriends and girlfriends" becomes widespread, "that could have an enormous impact on social development," she said.

Between the lines: This might also come with more tech legislation and regulation. The European Union has enacted tighter rules that have led to policy changes at major tech firms, Axios' Ina Fried previously reported.

• Meanwhile, U.S. legislators have been working to pass the Kids Online Safety Act for more than a year.
• TikTok could also be banned in the U.S. in less than a month after Congress and the White House passed a bill that will force the popular platform's Chinese parent company to divest from its U.S. operations or face a ban.

What we're watching: Misinformation, disinformation and the adverse outcomes of AI are projected to be some of the top global risks over the next 10 years, the World Economic Forum predicted in January 2024.

• Those followed climate, environment, biodiversity and natural resources crises.

Zoom in: Gen Z and younger millennials will mostly parent Gen Beta children.

• They're expected to be parents who recognize the volatility of the economy and focus on sustainability, both economically and environmentally.
• "Generation Beta will be shaped by parents who, in a lot of ways, lived through economic and social challenge," McCrindle said. "And that creates a resilience, a grit, an ability to respond to uncertain times but a conservative outlook — a desire to save, a desire to reuse, a focus on not just growth and ever more accumulation."

Zoom out: Gen Beta is also expected to witness significant demographic change within its lifetime as fertility rates fall worldwide and life expectancy increases.

• "As the Gen Betas are coming of age, the talk will not be overpopulation," McCrindle said. "It'll be population sustainability."

The bottom line: Governance, media, business and global geopolitics are undergoing massive upheaval, Axios' Jim Vandehei and Mike Allen recently wrote.

• Coming of age in this environment will, no doubt, shape the generation.

Go deeper: "A landmark generation": Introducing Gen Alpha