WaPo/ABC/Ipsos poll: 57% of Americans say AI is bad for society

57 percent of Americans now believe AI is outright bad for society, while just 42 percent say it's good, according to a Washington Post, ABC News and Ipsos poll of over 2,500 adults reported by Futurism.

The intensity gap is wider than the headline split. "A full 17 percent think AI is in fact 'extremely' bad, compared to a measly 2 percent who say it's extremely good," the article notes, roughly an eight-to-one lean at the strongest end of the scale.

Specific risks drive the sentiment. "An overwhelming 73 percent of Americans say there's a high or very high risk of AI hacking secure computer systems," per the article, while 65 percent view AI eliminating many jobs as a comparably high risk. On the upside, only 34 percent expect AI will make everyday tasks easier, and a paltry 13 percent believe it will create many new jobs.

"A sweeping 66 percent of Americans oppose new data center construction in the US," the article reports. Age tilts the sentiment younger-negative: "Some 65 percent of Americans under 30 say AI is bad for society, for instance, while only 53 percent of Americans over 40 hold the same view." The poll, Futurism writes, "comes after months of remarkably alarmist rhetoric from the AI industry, even compared to its history of casually doomsaying about its own tech." Two of the analysts we track flagged the write-up.