Americans are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence to help with things like research, writing, school or work projects, and data analysis — but they’re not exactly happy about it.
Even as the use and adoption of artificial intelligence grows, Americans continue to lack confidence in the new tool, according to a Quinnipiac University Poll published on Monday. Of the nearly 1,400 Americans surveyed, more than three-quarters said they don’t trust AI — 76% say they trust it rarely or only sometimes, compared to just 21% who trust it most or almost all of the time.
This is even as a growing number of Americans adopt artificial intelligence into their daily lives. Only 27% said they have never used AI tools, up from 33% in April 2025.
“The contradiction between the use and trust of artificial intelligence is striking,” said Chetan Jaiswal, professor of computer science at Quinnipiac. “51% say they use AI for research, and many also use it for writing, work and data analysis. But only 21% trust AI-generated information most or almost all of the time. Americans are clearly embracing AI, but doing so with deep hesitation, not deep trust.”
Part of this lack of confidence may come from a sense of dread about the future that artificial intelligence will bring. The poll found that only a paltry 6% were “very excited” about AI while 62% were either not so excited or not at all excited. Those numbers basically flip when we talk about concern: 80% are either very concerned or somewhat concerned about AI, with millennials and baby boomers taking the mantle of most concerned and Gen Z following not far behind.
Half (55%) say AI will do more harm than good in their daily lives, while only a third say AI will do more good than harm, according to the poll. More people have negative views of artificial intelligence compared to last year’s survey, researchers find – which may come as no surprise after a year of life-ending Big Tech layoffs Cases of psychosis with AIand data centers straining the energy grid.
Americans around the world oppose the construction of AI data centers in their communities, with 65% saying they would not want them built, citing high electricity costs and water use.
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The majority (70%) believe that the advancement of artificial intelligence will reduce the number of job opportunities, while only 7% believe that artificial intelligence will lead to more job opportunities. That’s a shift from 56% of Americans who last year thought AI advances would lead to job cuts and 13% who thought AI would increase job opportunities. Members of Gen Z, born between 1997 and 2008, are the most pessimistic, with 81% predicting job cuts.
They don’t exactly imagine it either. Entry level job listings in the US have sunk 35% by 2023, and AI leaders like Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warned that technology will eliminate jobs.
“Younger Americans report the highest familiarity with AI tools, but are also the least optimistic about the job market,” Tamilla Triantoro, a professor of business analytics and information systems at Quinnipiac, said in a statement. “AI fluency and optimism here are moving in opposite directions.”
Interestingly, although most Americans are concerned about AI’s impact on the job market as a whole, most don’t think it’s coming specifically to their jobs. Among working Americans, 30% worry that artificial intelligence will make their jobs obsolete. However, this is up from 21% last year.
“Americans are more concerned about what AI might do to the job market than what it might do to their own jobs,” Triantoro said. “People seem more willing to predict a tougher market than to imagine themselves on the losing end of this disruption – a pattern worth watching as technology moves deeper into the workplace.”
Perhaps a big reason Americans have trust issues with AI is because they don’t believe the companies behind the technology are telling the truth. Two-thirds of respondents said businesses are not doing enough to be transparent about their use of artificial intelligence. The same percentage also say the government is not doing enough to regulate AI. The sentiment comes as states push to retain their authority over AI rules, even as federal officials — including in Trump’s latest AI framework — and industry leaders advocate limiting regulation at the state level.
“Americans are not rejecting AI outright, but they are sending a warning,” Triantoro said. “Too much uncertainty, too little trust, too little regulation and too much fear for jobs.”
