How Americans View AI and Its Impact on People and Society (pewresearch.org)
- Reference: 0179339178
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/09/18/0452250/how-americans-view-ai-and-its-impact-on-people-and-society
- Source link: https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2025/09/17/how-americans-view-ai-and-its-impact-on-people-and-society/
> 1. Americans are much more concerned than excited about the increased use of AI in daily life, with a majority saying they want more control over how AI is used in their lives.
> 2. Far larger shares say AI will erode than improve people's ability to think creatively and form meaningful relationships.
> 3. At the same time, a majority is open to letting AI assist them with day-to-day tasks and activities.
> 4. Most Americans don't support AI playing a role in personal matters such as religion or matchmaking. They're more open to AI for heavy data analysis, such as for weather forecasting and developing new medicines.
> 5. Americans feel strongly that it's important to be able to tell if pictures, videos or text were made by AI or by humans. Yet many don't trust their own ability to spot AI-generated content.
[1] https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2025/09/17/how-americans-view-ai-and-its-impact-on-people-and-society/
With all new technologies (Score:2)
I'm kind of surprised though that [1]pornography [stanford.edu] wasn't listed. Maybe "meaningful relationships" covers this, or maybe they've already been eroded enough that smut isn't part of the picture. Or maybe it's because the fear is hitting people in their language centers first.
[1] https://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/cs181/projects/pornography/technology.htm
They didn't ask me, so here's my opinion (Score:1)
Overall, I'm a fan of AI
I see great potential in AI tools and hope that AI tools develop to the point where they can help us solve previously intractable problems.
I use AI to get answers that I could get myself, but AI is faster and more convenient. Example, I'm using a new microprocessor with a 2000 page data sheet. I can read the while thing to find an answer, or use the feeble search function in the PDF reader, or just scan. All of these approaches take a lot of time and the datasheet is often confusing.
Technofeudalism (Score:5, Insightful)
I can understand all of these concerns.
However, there is zero chance of any of these being addressed.
Our tech oligarchs run things and will steamroll any effort to restrict their control.
We are just the consumers.
Re: (Score:2)
That's not how you spell serfs .
Dream come true. (Score:2)
Thirty years ago, I dreamed of starting a company to create a digital assistant that would appear as a talking face on my phone and speak to me in normal, conversational English, basically a "what I'd do if I had enough money" thought exercise. I decided at the time that we didn't have the technology to create that, but now... pretty sure we do.
In other words, (Score:2)
Americans are displaying a lot of good sense when it comes to AI.
Now if only they would organize and agitate for a voice in the decision making, and a seat at the table when it comes to deploying AI.
I know that America has more immediate problems just now. But existing "AI" has arguably exacerbated and even created many of those problems. So maybe US citizens could put shouting across the chasm between Red and Blue on hold, hit 'Pause' on the Charlie Kirk morality play, and assign a higher priority to getti
Instead (Score:3)
Rather than address these concerns, create regulations, or build in safeguards ...
They AI firms wi hire public relations firms and social media influencers.
Re:Instead (Score:4, Insightful)
These companies are not going to self regulate, especially the AI companies which have too many billions invested into them already, everyone with money is expecting to see huge returns on that, not a measured and regulated rollout of new tech. Only the law can do that now and there's likely a less than 1% chance of that happening in the next 2-3 years, there's no appetite and the admin is relying on AI to keep the stock market juiced up.
Public opinion isn't going to go very far right now. The opinions of large firms on AI could change if it starts to look like a liability on the books or if there is a bubble capable or bursting (which is going to be bad news all around but might need to happen) but not until then. The markets are not rational.