Americans don't like AI nearly as much as the people who make AI, new poll finds

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — Americans overall don’t share the enthusiasm for artificial intelligence that AI startups and their ubiquitous San Francisco billboards would have you believe. At least, that’s what a new poll from Pew Research seems to indicate.

According to the poll, “How Americans View AI and Its Impact on People and Society,” Americans overall are “much more concerned than excited about the increased use of AI in daily life.” And despite Republican-led efforts to limit regulation on the technology, a majority of Americans say they want more control over how AI is used in their lives.

More than half of those polled, 53%, fear AI will worsen people’s ability to think creatively. Half of those polled think it will worsen people’s ability to form meaningful relationships with other people. Another 40% said it will worsen people’s ability to make difficult decisions, while 28% said it will have a negative impact on people’s ability to solve problems.

Conversely, only 16% of those polled thought AI would improve people’s ability to think creatively and 5% believed it would help people better form meaningful relationships.

Americans were slightly more optimistic about AI’s ability to help with problem solving with 29% believing it could be beneficial.

Half of Americas are more concerned than excited about the use of the technology. That’s up from 37% four years ago. Only 10% of those polled said they were more excited than concerned, while 38% said they were equally excited and concerned.

More than half of Americans, 57%, rate the societal risk of AI as high, contrasting the only 25% who say the benefits are high. Meanwhile, 6 in 10 of those polled said they’d like more control over how AI is used.

Americans expressed particular concern regarding detecting AI content. Most Americans, 76%, say it’s “extremely or very important” to be able to tell if pictures, videos and text were made by AI. Most Americans, 53%, said they are not too confident, or at all confident, that they can detect if something was made by AI.

The Pew report is the latest findings to pour cold water over the AI frenzy. Last month a report from MIT found that 95% of companies that were using generative AI were getting zero return financially. Meanwhile, at an Axio AI event this week, the CEO of one of San Francisco’s leading AI startups said there was a 25% that AI implementation could lead to things going “really, really badly.”