More now say AI does more harm than good: Survey

News More now say AI does more harm than good: Survey Comments: by Mira Bhakta - 07/29/26 6:42 PM ET Comments: Link copied by Mira Bhakta - 07/29/26 6:42 PM ET Comments: Link copied

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More Americans now believe AI does more harm than good as concerns grow over the technology’s long-term impact, according to a recent survey.

A Bentley University-Gallup survey released Tuesday showed 39 percent of respondents said they believe AI does more harm than good, compared with 31 percent who said so in 2023. When asked if AI did more good than harm, only 9 percent of respondents said so, down from 11 percent in 2025.

The survey also asked whether respondents “trust businesses to use artificial intelligence responsibly,” and 31 percent said they would not trust firms at all. This is not a significant drop from 2023 but marks the first time since the poll began that distrust increased rather than decreased.

Attitudes have settled in 2026 following two years of American optimism toward the technology. This could be due to the fact that 79 percent of respondents said they believe “AI will reduce the number of U.S. jobs over the next 10 years.”

In March, Anthropic analyzed the labor displacement AI would have on the job market and found that white-collar jobs were among the highest sectors AI could theoretically perform the best in.

Still, respondents to the poll said they believe AI performs the same or worse than people when performing certain tasks, like recommending financial advice, driving a car and advising companies on which people to hire.

States around the country are now slowing the growth of AI infrastructure and investigating safeguards for the technology. In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-N.Y.) passed a one-year freeze on data centers to provide time for lawmakers to put together an environmental and energy framework.

In Congress, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) unveiled a bill in March called the Artificial Intelligence Data Center Moratorium Act, which aimed to bar the construction of new data centers until there are stronger national safeguards in place.

The moratoriums are necessary for Sanders, who believes it will give “time to understand the risks” of AI and to “protect working families.”

The Bentley University-Gallup poll was conducted May 4-11.

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