Public trust gap on AI widens
A recent analysis found only 17% of U.S. adults expect AI to help the country compared with 56% of experts, highlighting a large public‑expert trust gap around AI. The piece frames declining public confidence as a broad reputational risk for major AI providers. (implicator.ai)
Americans and artificial intelligence experts are looking at the same technology and seeing very different futures: 17% of U.S. adults said AI will help the country, versus 56% of experts. (pewresearch.org) Pew Research Center published the findings on April 3, 2025, based on a survey of 5,410 U.S. adults conducted August 12-18, 2024, and a separate survey of 1,013 U.S.-based AI experts fielded August 14-October 31, 2024. (pewresearch.org) The split runs beyond one headline number. Pew found 47% of experts said they were more excited than concerned about AI in daily life, compared with 11% of the public, while 51% of adults said they were more concerned than excited, versus 15% of experts. (pewresearch.org) People also disagreed on whether AI will help them personally. Pew found 76% of experts said AI would benefit them, while 43% of U.S. adults said it would harm them and 24% said it would benefit them. (pewresearch.org) That gap lands as major technology companies are pushing AI into search, office software, phones and customer service, turning public opinion into a business constraint as well as a political one. (pewresearch.org) The public’s mood has also darkened over time. Pew said the share of Americans who felt more concerned than excited about AI rose from about four-in-ten in 2021 and 2022 to roughly half in 2023, and stayed at 51% in the 2024 survey. (pewresearch.org) Even with the optimism gap, the two groups overlap on control and oversight. Pew found 55% of U.S. adults and 57% of experts said they want more control over how AI is used in their lives, and both groups worried government regulation will not go far enough. (pewresearch.org) They also shared skepticism about some of AI’s most sensitive uses. Pew said only about one-in-ten adults and experts expected AI to have a positive effect on elections, and only small shares in each group said the same about news. (pewresearch.org) Views inside the expert camp were not uniform. Among experts, 63% of men said AI would have a positive effect on the United States over the next 20 years, compared with 36% of women; among the public, the split was 22% of men and 12% of women. (pewresearch.org) Pew’s expert sample was drawn from authors and presenters at 21 AI conferences in 2023 and 2024, and the center said those responses were unweighted because there is no definitive benchmark for the expert population. The result is a snapshot of a widening trust problem, not a settled consensus about what AI will do next. (pewresearch.org)
