Even Daily AI Users in America Don’t Actually Trust It
Americans worried about AI in surprisingly large numbers, even among the people using it every single day, according to a new survey from opinion research firm Gallup. About 68% of Americans who use AI daily reported feeling worried about it, with concern skewing even higher among those who use the technology less frequently.
People across the world increasingly turn to AI for everyday tasks, from looking up recipes and doing homework to researching work projects and building presentations. But daily use clearly doesn’t translate into comfort with AI’s broader implications for the world.
A Global Survey Revealing Americans Worried About AI
Commissioned by Microsoft, the Gallup study currently includes results from 37 countries, with researchers polling roughly 1,000 people in each between April and July. The project will eventually expand to cover 140 countries, though notably, India, Australia, and Malaysia aren’t currently part of the reported results.
The findings put the US firmly at the anxious end of the international chart, even as people in many other parts of the world expect AI to improve their lives. Western countries showed the highest overall concern, with the United States leading in anxiety, 74% of Americans reported feeling worried, and only 36% expect AI to mostly help the country.
Other wealthy Western nations showed a similar pattern of frequent use paired with concern. In Canada, 29% of respondents reported using AI daily, and more than half of those users expressed worry about its impact. Overall, 64% of Canadians aware of AI said it concerned them.
Why Americans Worried About AI Keeps Growing
This anxiety arrives amid a genuine wave of discontent around AI, with tech companies laying off hundreds of thousands of employees to fund AI investment, shrinking entry-level job openings, troubling cases of AI-related psychological harm, and stark warnings from AI leaders like Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who has cautioned that the technology could wipe out jobs en masse.
The picture looks notably different elsewhere in the world. Singapore, which recorded the highest share of daily users in the entire study at 46%, saw more than 80% of AI-aware respondents expect the technology to improve their everyday lives, with 77% believing it will help the country overall. In China, where 35% of people report daily AI use, most respondents expect it to benefit the nation, with Israel showing a similar pattern.
Optimism Doesn’t Always Mean Trust
Still, optimism about AI doesn’t necessarily translate into trust in its actual accuracy. According to Gallup, daily users generally trusted AI’s results more, particularly in high-adoption countries like Singapore, Israel, and China, while less frequent users remained skeptical across the board.
In the US specifically, only 45% of daily users expressed strong confidence in AI’s accuracy. Across all countries surveyed, just 36% overall said they trust AI’s results a lot, a relatively modest figure given how widespread daily use has become.
The Bigger Picture: Curiosity Still Outweighs Fear
Despite growing pockets of anxiety, Gallup reports that positivity about AI still outweighs negative sentiment overall. In 34 of the 37 countries surveyed, curiosity was the most commonly reported emotion toward AI, with fewer people describing feelings of happiness or excitement. Only about 32% of all respondents said they felt worried about AI. Positive emotions appeared most common in China at 90%, Singapore at 89%, and Kenya at 87%.
It remains unclear how sentiment in some countries, particularly China, may have shifted since the survey concluded in July, given how rapidly AI development has become a matter of international significance. AI safety is expected to be a major topic when President Donald Trump and Chinese Premier Xi Jinping meet this Thursday. Notably, China’s Minister of State Security Chen Yixin recently wrote that AI will have “a systemic impact on the political and security environment,” potentially threatening the country’s “political security, institutional security, and ideological security.”
A Complicated, Multidimensional Picture
“One of the clearest findings is that attitudes toward AI are multidimensional. People can be curious about AI, expect it to be beneficial and use it frequently while still being worried about it,” Pablo Diego-Rosell, senior scientist at Gallup, told TechCrunch. “Similarly, they can see considerable potential in AI while remaining skeptical about whether the information it provides is accurate.”
While the survey paints a picture of cautious optimism, Americans worried about AI increasingly reflects a broader trend entering mainstream public discourse. People relying on AI for daily tasks may still end up supporting stricter regulations or resisting its use in areas like hiring, healthcare, education, or government, particularly given legitimate concerns around AI’s environmental footprint, cybersecurity risks, content ownership disputes, and data privacy.
Ultimately, the report suggests that greater exposure alone won’t resolve underlying unease about the technology. Still, given the sheer scale of ongoing investment, AI will likely continue expanding rapidly even as debates rage on over exactly where it belongs and what limits, if any, should be placed around its use.