People Say They Hate AI, Yet They Cannot Stop Using It

Summary

Public attitudes toward AI are worsening even as adoption accelerates. Pew reports that more US adults expect AI to have a negative rather than positive effect on them and society, while a Stanford report says more than half of people worldwide feel nervous about AI products and services. A Gallup poll found that 71% of US adults would oppose a new AI data center in their area, and an NBC poll found AI less popular than ICE. At the same time, ChatGPT reached one billion monthly users in May, Gemini reached 950 million in July, and half of US adults now say they use a chatbot; one in four use one daily. More than a third of adults across the 38 OECD countries used generative AI in the previous three months. The author argues that these are often the same people: they may dislike the relentless way companies promote AI and the upheaval they promise, rather than rejecting every AI tool. The pattern resembles the backlash against social media and Google, where widespread dependence coexisted with distrust of the companies involved. The article notes that AI users may still have more leverage because regulation is advancing, with all 50 US states proposing or passing laws and more than 2,100 related bills, while open-source alternatives could increase consumer choice. It concludes that AI’s future is not predetermined and calls for clearer limits on what the technology can do and less apocalyptic marketing.