How people really feel about AI—from sea to shining sea
What do you think about AI? Are you concerned or excited? How are you already feeling the impacts of AI?
The public conversation about the future of AI has mostly been dominated by tech CEOs and investors hyping their products and boosting their investments, or other experts who either believe AI will destroy humanity or usher in a new golden age of prosperity.
Lost in the fervor is the point of view of everyday people, the users of AI and the ones on whom AI is increasingly being used—to provision housing, create medical treatment recommendations, screen job candidates, and determine creditworthiness.
Despite not having much of a voice in the debate about AI, the public has made itself heard in dozens of polls—including TechEquity’s—over the last year. What they have to say is overwhelming: they’re deeply concerned about the lack of guardrails on AI, particularly in high-risk areas such as employment, and they want government to do something about it.
To demonstrate this point, we aggregated all of the public polls we could find that asked the public to weigh in on AI. Our full inventory is here:
Check out our recent research into how Californians feel about AI.
How do people feel about AI?
Aside from the overwhelming desire for government to create guardrails for the AI industry that protect people—even at the expense of “winning a race” against geopolitical adversaries, there were a few other key themes that emerged across all polls.
A lot of people use AI, but they don’t feel like they know much about it
Roughly 41% of Americans say they use AI tools such as ChatGPT or Google Gemini. However, when asked about their usage of 6 common AI-enabled products, 99% of U.S. adults report using at least one of these in the past week.
Despite wide usage, only 12% of Americans feel they know a great deal about AI. 35% feel they know a good amount, 34% feel they know just some, and 17% feel they know hardly anything about AI.
There is strong opposition to AI being used in high-stakes areas of our lives
In a survey conducted by TechEquity, a majority of Californians (55%) are more concerned about future AI advancements than excited, and 28% of Californians are very concerned. Only 25% of residents surveyed by TechEquity believe that AI will have a positive impact on them.
Beyond that, across multiple polls, Americans consistently express strong discomfort with AI being used for consequential decisions. In the Quinnipiac poll, for example, when asked whether AI should be used to screen health insurance claims, 71% say no; screen loan applications by banks, 67% say no; screen job applications by companies, 64% say no.
A 2025 survey from Consumer Reports also revealed that the majority of Americans are uncomfortable with the use of AI in employment, housing, and healthcare. Among all of the scenarios laid out, respondents were the most ‘very uncomfortable’ with the use of AI to grade video job interviews.
Job displacement is a top concern
Job displacement in particular is a running concern in headlines and among the American public. 71% of respondents to a Reuters/Ipsos poll said they were concerned that AI will be “putting too many people out of work permanently.” A poll from Pew Research had similar findings: 64% of the public thinks AI will lead to fewer jobs over the next 20 years.
In California specifically, many find it unlikely that AI will create new jobs and industries or have a positive effect on increasing equality.
Most Americans want more AI regulation
Accordingly, over two-thirds of Californians (70%) want the government to establish safeguards around AI systems that prevent the most common harms. They do not trust industry to develop or abide by voluntary standards to reduce risk. Americans overall are on the same page, as seen in polling from Pew Research Center, Quinnipiac University, and the Artificial Intelligence Policy Institute.
But what about keeping ahead of the curve with China and other countries developing AI? 70% of Americans prefer cautious implementation even if that lets China get ahead in terms of AI development, per an Axios Harris poll.
Specifically, Americans want transparency and accountability
As for the policies they want to see implemented, one idea came through again and again: Americans want to know when AI is being used on them. In a survey from Consumer Reports, over 80% of Americans said that they’d want to know how an AI program or algorithm was used to determine whether or not they would be interviewed for a job they had applied for. If they found out that the AI used incorrect data, 91% of participants said they’d want the opportunity to make corrections.
Beyond transparency, an overwhelming majority of Californians specifically favor policies that establish guardrails and accountability, including protecting privacy (81%), civil rights (73%), and enacting non-discrimination rules (73%).
Where do people disagree about AI and why?
While there’s some broad consensus around AI, how it’s used, and that it should be regulated, there are some differences when you get to the demographic breakdowns.
Gender
Polls from both TechEquity and the Pew Research Center’s previous surveys of U.S. adults show that women are often more wary than men about AI.
Among AI experts, the opinion gap is even wider: 63% of men say AI’s impact on the U.S. over the next two decades will be very or somewhat positive, compared with 36% of women.
Income
60% of respondents to the Quinnipiac University poll who have an annual household income of over $200,000 believe that AI will do more good than harm. Only 26% of respondents with an annual household income under $50,000 held the same belief.
In fact, 59% of Californians surveyed are concerned that the benefits of AI will accrue only to the wealthiest households and corporations, not working people and the middle class.
Expertise
While 47% of AI experts surveyed by Pew say they are more excited than concerned about the increased use of AI, that share drops to 11% among the general public.
However, experts are less trusting of private companies and businesses to develop and use AI responsibly and tend to be more pro-regulation.
Political party
Regardless of political party, most Americans believe that the government is at least partially responsible for reducing the potential harms caused by AI.
Republicans, though, are slightly more likely to say business should take primary responsibility for the negative effects of AI on workers. Meanwhile, Democrats have slightly more negative views of AI, especially the effect of AI on national security and the spread of false information.
Are policies aligned with popular sentiments?
While sentiment among the public runs strongly against letting AI companies build with no guardrails, policymakers have often not listened.
At the federal level, the Biden Administration released the Executive Order for Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy AI, which the Trump Administration then replaced with its own deregulatory order. There was also an attempt to tack on a 10-year AI policy moratorium to a federal budget bill, which would’ve prevented states from developing their own regulatory regimes.
The moratorium was stripped from the bill, but the Trump Administration and some members of Congress have other plans to restrict states by limiting funding to states with “burdensome” AI regulations and creating a sandbox that immunizes AI systems from federal regulations/enforcement if they do certain things.
At the state level, there’s some movement with Colorado passing the U.S.’s first comprehensive regulation of AI and California passing over 20 AI-related laws in 2024. However, many of these individual laws are focused on labeling and K-12 AI education, not touching on people’s biggest concerns around jobs, automation, privacy, or discrimination, or giving people more power and agency over AI systems.
There’s also been pushback from governors, state legislators, and regulators like the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA), who say that the AI industry cannot flourish under tougher regulations and that the public would ultimately prefer a flourishing AI industry over more strict protections.
Local governments have been leading on AI regulation as San Francisco became the first city to ban AI-backed rent-fixing software, with Minneapolis, Philadelphia, and Hoboken following suit. New York City has a law prohibiting employers and employment agencies from using an automated employment decision-making tool (AEDT) unless they ensure a bias audit is done and provide notices. But the scope of their reach is generally not a match for the reach of the technology in our lives.
What can we do about it?
Trust in government is low right now. For Californians, that mistrust stems from a deep concern that legislators are overly influenced by the tech industry. But participants in TechEquity’s research on AI made clear that their support for policymakers depends on visible independence from it.
That’s difficult when the tech industry is pouring more money than ever into lobbying. But that won’t stop us, because we see you.
This week, Governor Gavin Newsom signed one of our pieces of sponsored legislation: the Preventing Algorithmic Price Fixing Act (AB 325). AB 325 updates California’s antitrust laws to address modern digital tools used for illegal price fixing by making it clear that using digital pricing algorithms to coordinate prices among competitors is just as unlawful as traditional price fixing.
We’re still waiting to see if he will sign the No Robo Bosses Act (SB 7), which would restrict the use of AI to monitor and manage employees.
Our other priority legislation, the Automated Decisions Safety Act (AB 1018), did not head to the governor this year but will likely come back in the next legislative session, so keep an eye out for opportunities to support it.
We’re also developing educational campaigns to inform people on how AI is impacting them—from housing discrimination to contaminated drinking water. Because how is someone supposed to effectively advocate for themselves and their community if they don’t have the information they need? Sign up for our newsletter to learn more about AI, receive resources that you can share, and get the latest updates on our legislative campaigns, as well as how you can help.
Lastly, our polling was not the end of us wanting to hear about your experiences with AI. By sharing your experience, you can help lawmakers understand why they should support these bills to protect everyday people.
Thank you
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