Americans are growing increasingly concerned about the use of artificial intelligence (AI) throughout their day-to-day lives. According to a Pew Research Center poll of 11,201 Americans conducted between July 31 and Aug. 6, 52% of respondents said they were more concerned than excited about AI.
That’s a jump from last year when 38% of respondents said they were more concerned than excited. Some 37% of those surveyed said they were concerned in 2021.
The survey comes as the AI wave continues to crash across various industries ranging from consumer goods and services to enterprise applications and medicine. While AI technology has been around for years, it exploded into the public eye with the debut of OpenAI’s generative AI-powered ChatGPT in 2022.
That led to a cascade of companies announcing new generative AI products and services. It’s also pushed shares of companies like Nvidia, which produces AI chips, and Microsoft, which offers AI services, through the roof.
But the increased use and recognition of AI’s capabilities has also led to increased scrutiny from public officials. The Biden Administration has called on prominent AI companies to voluntarily agree to a series of safety measures to ensure the technology is developed in a safe and manageable way.
Amazon (AMZN), Anthropic, Google (GOOG, GOOGL), Inflection, Meta (META), Microsoft (MSFT), and OpenAI agreed to support the measures in July.
While the majority of Americans say they’re more concerned about AI than excited, there are some areas in which they say the technology could have a positive impact, including in helping people find products and services online, the development of self-driving cars and trucks, health care, and finding accurate information online.
Still, survey respondents said AI will have a negative impact on keeping people’s personal information private and providing quality customer service.
A greater number of those respondents with college degrees and higher incomes tended to view AI more favorably than those with some college and lower incomes.
In a second Pew Research Center survey of 5,057 Americans conducted between July 17 and July 23, 71% of respondents with postgraduate degrees who have heard of ChatGPT said they believe chatbots will have a major or minor impact on their jobs.
Respondents also say that the government isn’t going far enough to regulate chatbots, with 67% calling for some kind of laws.
With more companies expected to roll out additional AI features in the coming months and years, Americans will need to become more comfortable with the technology sooner than later.
Daniel Howley is the tech editor at Yahoo Finance. He's been covering the tech industry since 2011. You can follow him on Twitter @DanielHowley.
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