Oren Etzioni has watched artificial intelligence evolve for decades. The longtime AI researcher and former chief executive of the Allen Institute for AI now sees a fractured public. Trust in the technology splits along sharp lines. Geography creates the biggest gulf. Gender follows close behind. Age and politics add their own wrinkles.
Nearly nine in 10 people in China say they trust AI, according to the Edelman Trust Barometer. In the United States that figure falls to barely a third. The Stanford AI Index 2026 echoes the pattern. Most Chinese believe AI’s benefits outweigh its drawbacks. Most Americans harbor doubts.
Economies tell part of the story. Fast-growing markets view AI as an escalator to better jobs and higher living standards. Mature ones see disruption first. Factories automated. Offices streamlined. Workers displaced. Trust tracks two forces. Confidence in institutions. And the expectation of personal upside. Both run stronger across much of Asia than in a skeptical West.
But. The divides run deeper than borders.
In the U.S., men prove roughly twice as likely as women to expect AI to benefit society, Pew Research Center surveys show. The gap widens among the experts who build these systems. Women have closed the usage gap on chatbots over the past two years. They still trust the tools less. They also voice greater worry that development races ahead too quickly.
Younger adults grab for ChatGPT at double the rate of their elders. Yet those under 30 stand out as most convinced the technology will harm society overall. Familiarity, it turns out, can breed caution. Gen Z reports the highest exposure. They also fear AI will slice into entry-level roles they hope to claim. A Harris Poll found them more pessimistic about job prospects than any older cohort.
AI researchers paint a brighter picture. Most believe the technology will help the country over the next 20 years. Among the general public, fewer than one in five agree. Knowledge explains some distance. Experts grasp the systems’ real limits and discount Hollywood-style doomsday tales. Self-interest explains more. Builders have careers and equity riding on success. Truck drivers and call-center staff see mainly threats to their livelihoods.
Miles’ Law captures it neatly. Where you stand depends on where you sit. Technology workers welcome AI on the job. Transportation workers oppose it. The Stanford HAI AI Index 2026 reports Southeast Asian countries as consistently most optimistic and most trusting of their governments to regulate the technology. North America and Europe register lower expectations and sharper skepticism. The U.S. posted the lowest trust in its own government to regulate AI responsibly, at just 31 percent against a global average of 54 percent. Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand topped the charts.
Recent data reinforces the global split. The Ipsos AI Monitor tracked in the Stanford report shows optimism about AI products offering more benefits than drawbacks rising to 59 percent globally in 2025. Nervousness ticked up to 52 percent. Southeast Asia led excitement. China and Indonesia reported high enthusiasm with nervousness below 50 percent. North America and Europe lagged. India saw the sharpest jump in concern.
Political currents have shifted too. Two years ago Republicans led AI skepticism. Democrats have since overtaken them. Just over half of Republicans now trust Washington to regulate the technology, per Pew. Only about a third of Democrats do. AI companies themselves draw more admiration on the right than the left, according to Harris polling. Democrats have cooled on firms they once embraced. Republicans have warmed to an industry boom their side now champions.
Even so, majorities in both parties worry more that rules will prove too weak than too heavy-handed. The fight centers on who holds the reins.
A February 2026 Data for Progress survey captured fresh domestic fractures. Overall, AI held a narrow net favorable rating of +2. But women viewed it unfavorably by a 10-point margin while men saw it favorably by 16 points. Voters 45 and older leaned unfavorable by 10 points. Younger adults posted a 25-point favorable tilt. Black voters showed +29 net favorable. White voters sat at -3. Daily users registered a stunning +57 favorable. Those who rarely or never use it sat at -42.
The pattern repeats. Those closest to the tools express the most enthusiasm. Those furthest away voice the loudest doubts.
Trust in government regulation follows similar contours. Pew’s March 2026 analysis found 44 percent of U.S. adults hold a lot or some trust in American institutions to regulate AI well. Forty-seven percent hold little or none. Republicans and Republican-leaning independents registered 54 percent trust. Democrats and Democratic leaners came in at 36 percent. The OECD’s 2026 survey on drivers of trust in public institutions highlighted how views of government AI use feed directly into broader institutional confidence across member countries.
Profession matters enormously. A 2026 Economics Observatory review of multiple polls noted women consistently report higher concern about AI than men across nations. Older adults voice more worry than younger ones in every country tracked by Pew. In the UK, 46 percent of those 50 and older said they feel more concerned than excited compared with 31 percent of younger adults.
Usage does not automatically build confidence. A YouGov survey reported in late 2025 found most Americans now use AI yet trust remains low. Only 21 percent said their trust had grown over the prior year. Twenty-five percent said it had fallen. A Quinnipiac University poll from March 2026 revealed 76 percent of Americans believe they can trust AI-generated information only some of the time or hardly ever.
Emerging markets continue to buck the Western trend. KPMG’s global trust in AI research, updated in 2025, showed higher willingness to rely on the technology in India, Brazil and parts of Southeast Asia. Respondents there cited expected gains in efficiency and access to services. European and North American samples expressed greater fear around bias, job loss and loss of control.
Etzioni draws a clear lesson. “Optimism comes from those with the most to gain, in the rising economies and inside the labs,” he told GeekWire. “Doubts rise from those with the most to lose or the most to fear. Whatever AI turns out to be, it is being built by the people most enthusiastic about it, for a public that is not.”
That mismatch carries consequences. Builders race forward fueled by belief. Users approach with caution or outright resistance. Policymakers face contradictory demands. Innovation advocates push for light touch. Safety voices call for guardrails. Both sides claim to speak for the public. Data shows no single public exists.
Recent coverage highlights the tension. A June 2026 Business Insider report on Morning Consult data showed AI as one of the least trusted categories among U.S. consumers. Seven of the 10 major AI brands saw year-over-year declines in net trust scores. Google’s Gemini bucked the trend with a modest gain. A LinkedIn analysis of Ipsos and Reuters Institute data from mid-2026 described AI companies as losing the trust war on multiple fronts.
Experts and the public also diverge on timelines and impacts. The Stanford AI Index notes AI researchers forecast far faster adoption of generative tools in the workplace than ordinary Americans expect. Experts see profound changes to human capacities such as decision-making and emotional intelligence by 2035. The public remains more pessimistic on those fronts.
Representation questions linger. Pew found only 40 percent of U.S. adults believe AI designers take White adults’ experiences into account at least somewhat well. Far fewer said the same for Black, Hispanic or Asian adults. Large shares admitted uncertainty. Such perceptions feed broader skepticism about whose values shape the systems.
The picture remains messy. No uniform verdict on AI exists. Southeast Asian optimism, Chinese enthusiasm, American caution, European worry and partisan realignments all coexist. Builders press ahead. Citizens watch warily. Governments scramble to craft rules that satisfy competing camps.
Etzioni’s central observation holds. What happens in the labs and on the policy front in a few key capitals will echo everywhere. The trust gaps suggest the path forward will be anything but smooth. Enthusiasts and skeptics inhabit different worlds. Bridging them will test the industry, regulators and society itself for years to come.
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