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Public opinion on AI

Polling and research on how people view AI's benefits, risks and regulation, and how public sentiment shapes policy debates and industry messaging.

Current stories

productOne report1 publisher

AP-NORC poll ranks human control above innovation in what Americans want from AI policy

AP-NORC polling finds 64% of Americans think AI is developing too fast, against 8% who say too slow. For product teams the more usable result is that about 8 in 10 call keeping AI under human control highly important, while about half say the same of innovation.

Reality

Evidence72
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+5
Incentives
Not scored
Confidence68
leadershipOne report1 publisher

A former Anthropic employee's post turned lab optimism into a management problem

Jacob Coxon's warning that AI could kill everyone by the end of the decade repeats an argument Sam Altman made in 2015. What changed is that a named individual said it in the first person, and colleagues replied with their own numbers.

Reality

Evidence45
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+20
Incentives40
Confidence40
securityOne report1 publisher

Gallup puts the US among three of 37 countries where negative feeling about AI outweighs positive

The Gallup and Microsoft survey covers 37 of a planned 140 countries, and the one kind of trust it measures is whether people think AI returns accurate information. Governance programs run on the other kinds.

Publishers:404media.co

Reality

Evidence52
Adoption55
Hype gap+12
Incentives55
Confidence55
productOne report1 publisher

Gallup finds AI optimism running ahead of trust in 35 of the 37 countries it surveyed

Gallup and Microsoft's first 37-country cut puts awareness, daily use and trust in accuracy in very different places. The spread lands on whoever has to ship one onboarding flow into all of those markets.

Publishers:gizmodo.com

Reality

Evidence62
Adoption70
Hype gap+12
Incentives58
Confidence55
leadershipOne report1 publisher

Gallup counts more than two Americans distrusting AI for every one who trusts it

About half of Americans use chatbots anyway, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation's explanation for the pushback is procedural: AI features switched on by default, with no clear way for a user to turn them off.

Publishers:vox.com

Reality

Evidence45
Adoption58
Hype gap+15
Incentives55
Confidence45
leadershipOne report1 publisher

Dreamforce attendees answered an AI extinction question with worries about jobs, mental health and the environment, not doom

Business Insider asked seven named people at and around Salesforce's conference where they put the odds of an AI catastrophe. Six treated it as remote, and the specifics they offered instead were electricity prices, privacy and school deepfakes.

Reality

Evidence58
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+18
Incentives45
Confidence60
investOne report1 publisher

Pennsylvania made data-center promises enforceable, and that is a financing problem

Shapiro pulled AI data centers from fast-track review and attached power, water and disclosure conditions. AEP Ohio already showed what happens when the ask has to be backed with money.

Publishers:fortune.com

Reality

Evidence38
Adoption34
Hype gap+22
Incentives62
Confidence40
productOne report1 publisher

Pew's under-30 numbers turn AI hostility into a positioning constraint

More than half of Americans under 30 say they are more concerned than excited about AI, and one survey suggests different messaging barely moves that. Plan around it.

Publishers:wired.com

Reality

Evidence44
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+18
Incentives72
Confidence38
investOne report1 publisher

Data-center politics graduated from zoning boards to primary ballots, and capex plans have not repriced

Florida's Republican gubernatorial nominee ran on ratepayer costs while taking AI PAC money. The NRSC calls data centers a midterm "sleeper issue." Cost allocation is now a schedule risk.

Publishers:cnbc.com

Reality

Evidence54
Adoption58
Hype gap+21
Incentives74
Confidence56
productOne report1 publisher

Data centers are now a ballot issue in 40% of US races, and roadmaps have not priced that in

Washington Post data has AI and data centers outranking crypto, Israel and manufacturing on candidate websites. Siting and power decisions now carry electoral risk.

Publishers:gizmodo.com

Reality

Evidence42
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+22
Incentives58
Confidence44
productOne report1 publisher

Chesky's own number: 159 of 175 YC companies are enterprise, and he sits on the board

The Airbnb CEO says founders are afraid to build for consumers. The statistic he cited describes a funding pipeline, not a mood, and he helps govern the institution that produced it.

Publishers:thenextweb.com

Reality

Evidence52
Adoption34
Hype gap+28
Incentives76
Confidence48