Americans are increasingly skeptical of artificial intelligence, but we are using it more than ever

It’s our ongoing dilemma: Many adults in the United States believe that artificial intelligence will have a negative impact on society. We are increasingly skeptical of our governments’ ability to rein in technology’s most dangerous tendencies. But we continue to use artificial intelligence at increasing rates.

A new study by the Pew Research Center published on Wednesday puts this dilemma in numbers. About half of US adults (49%) use chatbots, with nearly a quarter reporting that they use AI daily. This represents a 16% increase from 2024, when only a third of US adults reported using some type of AI tool.

The ways we use AI are also changing. Smart home devices and wearables, such as smart watches and rings, are incorporating AI into the way they work. This gives us more daily exposure to AI. About a third of U.S. adults say they have a smart speaker, Pew found, and AI features are showing up in smart doorbells for some U.S. adults (18%), robot vacuum cleaners (13%), and even smart thermostats (11%).

But although we may be using artificial intelligence, we are not blind to the risks it poses. More US adults believe that AI will have a negative impact on society (40%), a slight increase from a Similar Pew report for 2025. This compares to 31% who now believe that AI will have an equally negative and positive impact. Only 16% say it will be positive.

Part of this change compared to previous years is likely because the AI ​​tools themselves have changed significantly as well. The AI-generated photos and videos were easy to spot with their 11-fingered hands and glitches; Now, they are Virtually indistinguishable from reality. AI regression is All over our social media feeds. Vital coding tools are Technological eons beyond that The simple chatbots that amazed us in 2022.

As the use of artificial intelligence increases, so do the opportunities for the technology to cause harm. Pew found that nearly two-thirds of US adults (63%) believe that artificial intelligence is advancing too quickly. In a Recent national Johns Hopkins University surveyA majority of US adults said they want to be able to interact with other humans, not artificial intelligence, in medical care (79%), legal proceedings (76%), and education (74%). Most (75%) want transparency when they interact with AI; Nearly three-quarters of US adults want a ban on artificial intelligence that impersonates people’s faces and voices.

Historically, governments have intervened to prevent some of these more serious technological disasters. But the US government has been reluctant to pass any significant laws about artificial intelligence. The only thing that matters is the Take It Down law, which It went into effect this spring It allows people to request the removal of AI-edited images of themselves from social media. Except for a few Miscellaneous state lawsAI companies are largely free to set their own rules.

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The Trump administration said that bureaucratic regulations It would slow down innovation And prevent the United States from overtaking China in developing artificial intelligence. But recent developments in AI capabilities have led national security advisers to propose a new requirement that all new AI models must pass government review before being released to the general public. Anthropic who He fought a very public battle With the Department of Defense on artificial intelligence, Pulled the latest Fable 5 model After cybersecurity concerns led to sudden restrictions imposed by the government.

We’ve seen what happens when AI companies fail. Several families have filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, Alleging that ChatGPT encouraged Their children hurt themselves and eventually die by suicide. Grok, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence, Make millions of AI’s sexual images of women and children without their consent earlier this year, It sparked international outrage and investigations and Lawsuits.

So perhaps it’s not surprising that 67% of US adults have little confidence in the US government’s ability to effectively regulate AI, Pew found. This is slightly higher than in 2024. About 60% are not confident that US companies will develop and use AI tools responsibly. (Only 17% of US adults have confidence in the federal government overall, Pew is found in 2025.)

Republicans and Democrats have disagreed with each other when it comes to questioning federal regulation of artificial intelligence. In 2024, more Republicans than Democrats reported having little or no confidence in the US government to effectively regulate AI. Now, more Democrats are skeptical.