Only 16 Percent of Americans Think AI Will Have a Positive Impact on Society
Despite the fact that AI increasingly dominates our economy (it’s a hot IPO summer and we’re all just along for the ride), most Americans are not particularly optimistic about the technology’s long-term impact on the country, a new study from Pew Research reveals.
In fact, although a whole lot of Americans increasingly use AI in their daily lives, most of them have neutral to negative views about it, the research reveals.
Only 16% of Americans think that AI’s impact on society during the next 20 years will be positive, Pew says, while around 40% say that it will have a negative impact.
A vast majority of people (67%) don’t believe that the U.S. government will do anything to meaningfully regulate AI. A similarly skeptical cohort (59%) don’t trust companies to develop it safely.
Young people — that is, those people under 30 — are the ones with the most negative feelings about AI. Pew says that only 14% of this cohort believe the tech will have a positive impact on society.
On top of all this, a vast majority of Americans — nearly two-thirds — also think that AI’s development is occurring too quickly.