Americans are significantly more skeptical about AI than people in most other countries, with U.S. residents expressing concerns about job loss, misinformation and loss of creative agency, while having little trust in government oversight of the technology.

Experts attribute this gap partly to the absence of a clear, benefits-driven public vision for AI in the U.S., in contrast to countries like China, Japan and India, where AI development is more directly tied to solving specific national challenges.

Baobao Zhang, Maxwell Dean Associate Professor of the Politics of AI, says the goals are completely different in countries such as China. In those places, the focus is more about using AI to tangibly improve people’s lives in areas such as healthcare, education and science.

In the U.S., she says, “It just seems more that [consumers are] being burdened with the risks and potential harms.”

“Right now, it feels like for a lot of people, they don’t have much say and control over how AI is being used,” she adds. “It is either forced upon them...or they feel like they have to acquiesce to it in order to keep their job.”

Read more in the Christian Science Monitor article, “Why don’t Americans welcome AI as much as people in other countries?”