<p>Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) is increasingly being used by teachers for a variety of instructional tasks, from planning lessons to creating assessments. While proponents of GenAI argue that it can make teachers for efficient and effective, critical scholars have raised a variety of concerns, including algorithmic biases and erosion of teachers’ autonomy and skill. As teacher educators, we aim to help pre-service teachers navigate this landscape by developing a “technoskeptical” perspective, which we define as a balanced stance that allows teachers to leverage the benefits of GenAI while navigating its negative impacts. To achieve that aim, we implemented a series of investigations of GenAI in a science methods course taken by elementary, early childhood, and special education majors. In this convergent mixed methods study, we examine the impacts of those investigations on how our students think about GenAI in their professional practice. At the beginning of the course, most of our students expressed an interest in using GenAI, and after investigating its capabilities they began to identify specific use cases for it. At the same time, our investigations helped them understand and articulate its technical weaknesses as well as its potential to undermine classroom relationships and their professional practice. While a few of our students ended up as enthusiastic adopters or rejecters of GenAI, most advocated for a limited and cautious use of the technology. Our findings highlight the complexities of pre-service teachers’ thinking about GenAI, and how GenAI can be addressed in the science teacher education context.</p>