About 68% of Americans who use AI every day are worried about the technology, according to a new survey by opinion research firm Gallup. Concern is even higher among people who use AI less frequently.
The study, commissioned by Microsoft, has results from 37 countries, where researchers polled about 1,000 people in each country between April and July. The project will eventually span 140 countries. India, Australia and Malaysia are not currently part of the reported results.
The findings place the United States at the anxious end of an international chart. According to Gallup, 74% of Americans reported feelings of worry, and only 36% expect AI to mostly help the country. In Canada, 29% of those surveyed reported using AI daily, and of those, more than half expressed concerns. Overall, 64% of Canadians aware of AI said it worried them.
In Singapore, which had the highest portion of daily users in the study at 46%, more than 80% of those aware of AI expect the technology to improve their everyday lives, and 77% think it will help the country. In China, where 35% of people report using AI daily, most people expect it to help the country. The story is similar in Israel.
Trust in AI's accuracy varies. In the US, only 45% of daily users expressed confidence in its results. Altogether, only 36% (median) of people surveyed said they trust AI's results a lot. Overall, Gallup reports that positivity about AI outweighs negative sentiments: in 34 of the 37 countries surveyed, people mostly reported feeling curious about the technology, with fewer saying they felt happy or excited. Only about 32% of those surveyed said they felt worried about AI.
Pablo Diego-Rosell, senior scientist at Gallup, told TechCrunch: "One of the clearest findings is that attitudes toward AI are multidimensional. People can be curious about AI, expect it to be beneficial and use it frequently while still being worried about it. Similarly, they can see considerable potential in AI while remaining skeptical about whether the information it provides is accurate."
The report suggests that greater exposure alone will not resolve the unease around the technology. AI safety is one of the major topics on the table for discussion when U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese Premier Xi Jingping meet on Thursday.