How Do Americans Feel About AI?

Days after several artificial intelligence (AI) researchers and engineers spoke out on social media about the potential risks and dangers of AI, President Donald Trump called attempts to limit the technology a "SICK conspiracy." Are Americans reaching a new age of anxiety around AI?

A 'Great AI Freakout': Wall Street Journal (Center bias) published an analysis exploring the reactions of Americans across a variety of industries after Jacob Coxon's posts on X went viral. The Journal cited Rev. Christopher Benek, a Christian faith leader who published the book Church Leader's Guide to Artificial Intelligence, who said he got an increase of questions and worries about AI from his congregation after Coxon's posts' virality. Rakesh Shah, vice president of product at the cybersecurity company Quest Software, told The Journal that his own children had voiced questions about an imminent "Matrix world." Shah said, "When the conversation becomes a dinner-table conversation, it's going to become, definitely, a board-level conversation." The Journal also quoted a mental health counselor, the executive director of an AI safety research nonprofit, celebrities in the entertainment industry, and others, all of whom echoed fears about AI and the need for regulation on it.

The Need for Government Intervention: A New York Times (Lean Left) analysis highlighted the "government paralysis" that seems to be occurring in the face of growing AI concerns. The Times reported that "more than 1,300 computer scientists" have called for their own industry to slow AI development. It also reported calls from Dario Amodei, chief executive of Anthropic; Elon Musk; and Sam Altman, chief executive of OpenAI, calling for a global slowdown on AI development. "Yet in Washington," The Times wrote, "there has been almost no substantive response." The Times also described one problem politicians face when regulating AI as a "Prisoner's Dilemma" because of the race for superintelligence with China. Because AI poses such a threat to national security for both nations, it would benefit both to cooperate on limits and regulations, and yet neither country trusts the other to abide by such an agreement.

Do We Really Need 'Doomerism'? National Review (Right) published an opinion by Michael Brendan Dougherty questioning some of the AI "doomerism" that has become popular. Dougherty called to light the book If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies by Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares, claiming that many of their predictions about how AI will contribute to human extinction have already been proven false. He also pushed back against worries about AI contributing to unemployment, arguing that so far evidence "points to AI creating more jobs than it destroys." Ultimately, Dougherty concludes that "artificial intelligence is thus likely to be a powerful prosthesis for human intellection," not a superintelligent being that humans need to fear.

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