Only 16 percent of Americans think AI will have a positive impact on society, a new study shows

Despite the fact that AI is increasingly dominating our economy (it’s a hot IPO summer and we’re all in the middle of it), most Americans aren’t particularly optimistic about the technology’s long-term impact on the country, according to a new Pew Research study.

Although many Americans are increasingly using AI in their daily lives, most of them have neutral to negative views about it, the survey found.

Only 16 percent of Americans think AI’s impact on society over the next 20 years will be positive, Pew says, while about 40 percent say it will have a negative impact.

A large majority of people (67 percent) do not believe the U.S. government will do anything to meaningfully regulate AI. An equally skeptical cohort (59 percent) does not trust that companies will develop this safely.

Young people – that is, those under thirty – are the ones with the most negative feelings about AI. Pew says only 14 percent of this cohort believe the technology will have a positive impact on society.

Moreover, a large majority of Americans – almost two-thirds – also think that AI development is happening too quickly.

Despite all the skepticism, many Americans also report that they are increasingly using AI in their daily lives. About a quarter of Americans say they use AI chatbots every day. Those that do typically use the chatbots for research purposes or for work, Pew says.

A vast majority of people using AI use ChatGPT. Pew writes that 44 percent of American adults now say they use OpenAI’s chatbot, a figure that has more than doubled since 2023.

The next most popular chatbot is Gemini (24 percent), followed by Copilot (17 percent) and MetaAI (14 percent), with Grok (8 percent), Claude (6 percent) and Character.ai (3 percent) behind.

There is a bit of a gender gap. While chatbot use is increasing among both men and women, men are still using AI more and are more enthusiastic about it, while women are more skeptical, says Pew. Men are more likely to say they use AI chatbots in their daily lives (27 percent vs. 20 percent for men) and while equal shares of men and women use ChatGPT, men are more likely to report using other brands such as Copilot and Grok.

The report also highlights how AI is changing the way Americans consume information. Six in 10 respondents told Pew they routinely read AI-generated internet summaries (on Google, they’re all but unavoidable). A much smaller number report using AI to gain information about fitness and dieting.

There are still a lot of people – about half the country – who say yes not use AI in their daily lives. The people who don’t use AI tend to be older, while those under 50 are more likely to say they use it. Nearly 75 percent of Americans aged 65 or older say they never use AI chatbots.

The people who don’t use chatbots say they don’t because they aren’t interested in them, adding that they don’t plan to use them in the future.