Pew: Democrats Overtake GOP as Top AI Worriers, 56% to 49%

Democrats now outworry Republicans about AI in daily life, Pew Research reported on September 16, reversing the partisan pattern its own survey found two years ago. In the June poll of 3,488 U.S. adults, 56% of Democrats said they were more concerned than excited about AI's growing use, compared with 49% of Republicans.

Democratic worry has been climbing for years. Pew writes that among Democrats, "the share who say they are more concerned than excited about AI has risen from 46% in 2023 to 56% today," with concern up 25 percentage points since 2021. Republican concern has moved the other direction, falling 10 percentage points from 2023 to today's 49%. The ideological wings sharpen the same split: liberal Democrats now sit at 63% concerned, up from 45% in 2023, while conservative Republicans' concern has fallen 14 points over the same window.

The jobs question tracks the same reversal. "Democrats are now more likely than Republicans to predict that AI will lead to fewer jobs over the next 20 years (75% vs. 68%)," the write-up says, adding that "the share of Democrats who think AI will lead to fewer jobs has risen 17 percentage points, while Republicans' views have changed little."

That party gap sits on top of a broader public drift: 52% of all U.S. adults now say they are more concerned than excited about AI, up from 37% in 2021. A New York Times/Siena poll we tracked this week put Republicans slightly ahead of Democrats on trust in the tech, an inversion of Pew's concern numbers that suggests the partisan sorting on AI is real and running in both directions at once.