Hosted by
To explore Americans’ worries and hopes about AI, the Ipsos Consumer Tracker surveyed 1,077 U.S. adults from March 12-13, 2025. What they found: Americans think that potentially negative AI impacts are more near-term than potentially positive AI impacts are.
In their study, Ipsos listed a series of impacts – for example, “increasing productivity for workers” – that AI currently or might someday have… and asked respondents a) when they think that impact will become widespread, and b) how much it would personally impact them. According to the data, adults, on average, thought more negative impacts would happen sooner. For example, a full 59% of adults thought AI “decreasing privacy” was already happening or would happen within the year… and nearly half (49%) thought “increasing government surveillance” was already occurring or imminent.
In contrast, adults thought more positive impacts – like health improvements – were farther off. For example, just 21% of American adults thought AI “finding new treatments and cures for diseases” was already happening or would happen in the next year, followed by just 14% who thought the same of AI “reducing vehicle traffic in cities.”
This means that more negative impacts seem more top-of-mind and imminent for U.S. adults… and helps explain why more adults are using increasingly negative language to describe AI creations.
Hosted by