Americans’ disdain for artificial intelligence is nothing new. Recent polling shows that 52% of U.S. adults feel more concerned than excited about the growth of AI in daily life, while nearly three quarters of Americans oppose the construction of new data centers in their areas.
But different research shows it’s not just the tech itself that’s sparking skepticism among Americans, but also the leaders at the forefront of the AI industry.
A new poll from CNBC and Generation Lab asked American adults under age 35 for their thoughts on the state of AI, the economy, politics, and more, pointing toward a massive chunk of the population that doesn’t stand by AI or by the people in charge of it.
A lack of trust in AI
The poll asked young Americans for their thoughts on nine of the biggest players in the AI industry, including eight tech CEOs. Respondents didn’t have trust in a single one of them to act responsibly on AI.
The most trusted figure in the poll, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, still scored dismally, with 65% of respondents saying they don’t trust him.
The results only get worse from there, with OpenAI’s Sam Altman, SpaceX’s Elon Musk, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang each having approximately 70% of respondents distrust them. Even lower on the ranking, 74% of young Americans said they don’t trust Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai and 76% said the same about Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei.
Two representatives for Palantir, Chairman Peter Thiel and CEO Alex Karp, occupy the bottom two spots on the list with 79% and 81% of respondents distrusting them respectively.
That lack of faith in AI leaders extends to a lack of faith in the impact of AI itself. Nearly half of respondents (45%) said they think AI will have a negative impact on their careers, compared to just 10% who feel it will help their careers. Three quarters of respondents (76%) called for AI to be regulated, either by the government or by “an independent expert body,” and 60% said that construction of data centers “must be slowed.”
Young America’s political leanings
The poll also gauged young Americans’ feelings toward democratic socialism, as democratic socialist candidates have become increasingly common in state and local elections across the country. In New York City, democratic socialist mayor Zohran Mamdani gave endorsements to two democratic socialist candidates in the June primary, both of whom won their elections. In Wisconsin, democratic socialist candidate Francesca Wong narrowly lost the democratic primary for the state’s governor earlier this month.
The rise of democratic socialism is reflected in the poll’s results, with nearly half of respondents (46%) saying they have a “somewhat favorable” or a “very favorable” view of the ideology. Meanwhile, just 23% said they feel “somewhat unfavorable” or “very unfavorable” toward democratic socialism, with the remaining 32% either feeling neutral or being unaware of what democratic socialism is.
The poll also asked young Americans for their thoughts on the national economy. The response was overwhelmingly negative, with 80% of respondents rating the economy as “bad,” “really bad,” or “couldn’t be worse.” They’re not optimistic about the economy, either: 50% of respondents said they believe it “will get worse” in the future, while 22% said they think it will improve.
