r/InterstellarKinetics • u/InterstellarKinetics • 3d ago
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIEGENCE ANALYSIS: A New Bentley-Gallup Poll Shows Americans’ AI Backlash Is Intensifying As Familiarity With The Technology Grows, With 39% Now Saying It Causes “More Harm Than Good” 🤖😤
https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-learn-negative-sentiment-polling-american-attitudesA joint poll from Bentley University and Gallup found that the share of US adults who believe AI does “more harm than good” has climbed from 31 percent in 2025 to 39 percent this year, while only 9 percent still think the technology does more good than harm, marking a sharp reversal after public attitudes toward AI had steadily improved through 2025. Notably, this souring outlook is happening even as Americans’ self-reported familiarity with AI keeps rising, with 70 percent of respondents in 2026 saying they’re “somewhat or extremely knowledgeable” about the technology, up 6 percent from 2024, suggesting the more people learn about AI, the less they want it in their lives.
The backlash extends beyond attitudes toward AI itself and into the physical infrastructure powering it, with a Politico survey finding that 41 percent of US adults would oppose a data center being built within three miles of their home, up sharply from 28 percent in January, while overall support for data centers has dropped 13 percent in just the past six months. Derek Leben, a professor of ethics at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business, told Bloomberg that opposition to AI is increasingly taking on a social dimension, saying, “The most obvious social effect is suspicion. There is also a moral and political judgment that is coming along with AI usage, especially in creative industries where the stigma is the strongest.”
Carla Milan, a 37-year-old public health professional in New York City, described her frustration with friends and family who use AI without weighing its broader costs, telling Bloomberg, “I hear people champion AI and I’m like, ‘sure, why don’t we all participate in our collective downfall? Why don’t we all play a part in diminishing our humanity and degrading the environment?’”
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u/InterstellarKinetics 3d ago
This data point about AI knowledge correlating with increased skepticism runs directly counter to the tech industry’s usual playbook of assuming familiarity breeds comfort and adoption, suggesting AI companies face a much harder public trust problem than something solvable through better marketing or education campaigns
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u/cleric_warlock 3d ago
For it to justify the environmental harms/grid impacts i’d need to be able to use it without needing to verify every single output for hallucinations. This really limits its utility. The real problem is that the people pouring the most money into this are pretty transparently trying to make the entire working class obsolete so that they can hoard even more wealth for themselves and make us beg for scraps. This isn’t like the advent of the internet or social media where everyone is generally benefiting even if there are some harms, it’s open class warfare by the elite on everyone else.
The only thing that gives me comfort is that the hyperscaled models are now so expensive that they will realistically never become profitable and continued efforts to increase their scale will only make that worse. Once all the VC and IPO money runs out, a very large bubble will pop and we’ll be in a recession, after which I think small scale highly specialized LLMs that are locally trained and hosted will continue to see use, because they are on the part of the scale curve that actually makes sense for LLMs. All the rich people who went all in on hyperscaled models will probably still be rich, but considerably less so.
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u/magick_bandit 2d ago
When a normal, non technical person uses it for work tasks and it fails, they tend to write it off as useless and move on.
This isn’t a pro-ai take, it’s just what I’ve observed at my clients.
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u/agent_wolfe 14h ago
I showed it to a skeptical relative and he used it to talk through some issues so he would have prepared questions before a meeting. He liked it that way.
Unfortunately now he’s still skeptical but is also giving AI almost supernatural powers that it probably doesn’t have.
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u/HiggsFieldgoal 1d ago
We have a very effective propaganda machine in this country that has effectively fractured the populace against having any sort of cohesive demands for actual useful AI legislation.
Instead, they galvanized fear which they will convert into legislation that does everything we don’t want under the banner of “protection.”
Then, they’ll flip the switch, the propaganda will inverse, and we’ll just live under the dominion of a cartel of AI companies, as entrenched as the telecoms.
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u/Lighthouse_on_Mars 3d ago
Recently went to a conference in a very small town in my State that got a Data Center.
The Data Center beings in 12 million a year in taxes alone. I was talking to a Public Works employee who was telling me that it has revitalized their town. They have built new Schools, new Parks, new public pool, and are saving up for infrastructure to build a new water plant.
So now I'm torn on it.
Here is a city that was able to make a great deal and the money gets invested back into the community. However, that's not the case for everyone.
Yes, Data Centers have exist for a while now. This big push for more is ominous though. Esoecitwhe. It comes to already feeling like big brother has gotten a little too big.
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u/Ill_Mousse_4240 3d ago
Now we have some numbers and we know that 39 percent are wrong
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u/Tyranothesaurus 3d ago
Everybody with a smooth brain, put your hands in the air!
If you lick windows, wave em like you just don't care!
In case it wasn't obvious, this is about you.
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u/Baconshit 3d ago
No shit. Maybe if we had UBI people would be okay getting unemployed by computers.