Nearly two-thirds of Americans think artificial intelligence is developing too quickly. Concern about the pace is greater among Democrats, but most Republicans share it, according to a poll released Thursday.
The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey found that 64% of adults believe AI technology in the United States is moving too fast. That view was held by 76% of Democrats and 54% of Republicans.
Just 8% thought development was too slow. About a quarter said the pace was about right.
Americans want the government to put a high priority on protecting U.S. workers and keeping AI under human control. About eight in 10 rated those goals as extremely or very important.
Similar shares of Democrats and Republicans supported both goals, along with promoting technological innovation. The parties differed more over the importance of minimizing environmental harm and competing with other countries.
Asked whom they trusted to handle AI, 39% of adults chose neither party. Democrats had the edge among 23%, while 21% trusted Republicans more.
Thirty-one percent approved of President Donald Trump’s handling of the technology.
AI has drawn relatively few adults looking for information about the upcoming midterm election. Twenty-one percent said they had used or planned to use it to learn about a candidate or an issue on the ballot.
Twelve percent had used or intended to use AI to find out how to vote. Ten percent said the same about voter registration, and 10% about deciding whom to vote for.
The poll surveyed 2,140 adults Sept. 24–28 through NORC at the University of Chicago’s probability-based AmeriSpeak panel. Researchers interviewed respondents online and by telephone, using landlines and cellphones. The overall margin of sampling error was plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.
