According to the results of a new survey conducted by the Gallup analytical center in May 2026, there has been a significant increase in skepticism about artificial intelligence technologies in the United States. Thirty-nine percent of respondents expressed the opinion that the development of AI brings more harm to society than good, which represents a significant increase compared with 31 percent recorded a year earlier. At the same time, the level of self-declared awareness of the population about this technology has also increased: seventy percent of American adults said they have at least a basic understanding of how AI works, compared with 64 percent in 2024.

The most pronounced shift towards distrust was recorded among respondents in the age group from 18 to 29 years. In this category, 47 percent of the survey participants described the impact of artificial intelligence as rather negative, compared with 36 percent in the previous year. At the same time, there has been a significant decrease in confidence in the corporate sector: the proportion of young people who are confident in the responsible use of AI by businesses has decreased from 30 to 20 percent. At the same time, the share of those who have completely lost confidence in technology companies in this matter has increased from 29 to 41 percent.

Concerns about the state of the labor market have become an additional factor that increases public anxiety. Seventy-nine percent of respondents expressed confidence that the introduction of artificial intelligence systems will lead to a reduction in the number of jobs in the United States over the next decade. This indicator shows steady growth compared to previous years, especially in the age groups from 18 to 29 years old and from 45 to 59 years old. Against the background of this data, a protest rally was held in San Francisco in July 2026, the participants of which demanded that leading technology corporations suspend the training of new, more powerful AI models.