Following reporting two weeks ago on the hacking of HuggingFace by OpenAI models, concern about AI’s impact on society jumped, and more people than ever are saying AI models have gone rogue.

In a survey that went into the field two days after reporting on the incident broke:

• 72% of Americans – nearly three quarters – say they’re somewhat or very concerned about AI’s growing impact on society, an increase from 66% in late June and early July. Within that, people who say they are very concerned increased from 28% to 35%.

• The number of people saying that AI systems are behaving in ways their developers didn’t intend increased from 28% in late June to 35% earlier this week. The shift was mostly attributable to people moving from saying this was likely to happen to saying it’s already happening.

These shifts are both outside the cross-wave margin of error, and we believe this shows that the spike in concern is correlated with news of the hacking incident.

Our team is assembling briefing materials on these findings, and if you or your team work on AI policy issues, feel free to reach out to us for more information.

The survey of 1,815 American adults was conducted from July 23 to 28 with NORC at the University of Chicago’s AmeriSpeak panel.

Other Results

Other highlights from this week’s survey, including movements within the margin of error, but that we’re watching:

• ↑ Resignation: 72% say that AI is coming into their lives whether they want it or not, compared to 13% who say people like them can shape how much AI is a part of their lives. This increased 1 percentage point from the previous survey.

• ↓ Productivity: 44% say people are already seeing people save time on everyday tasks due to AI, or expect to soon. This decreased 4 percentage points from the previous survey.

• ↓ Job insecurity: 76% say AI is making job security worse. This decreased 3 percentage points from the previous survey.

• ↑ Action on data centers: 46% want government to do more about AI’s environmental footprint, including from data centers, compared to 24% who say government is doing too much. This increased 3 percentage points from the previous survey.

• ↓ Likelihood of WMDs: 67% say AI being used to develop weapons of mass destruction is likely to happen or already happening. This decreased 2 percentage points from the previous survey.

Other News

Five interesting insights from recent polls:

• Americans want the US to lead: In a June survey, Pew Research Center found that 77% of Americans feel that it’s extremely or somewhat important for the U.S. to be the leader in AI development, but only 12% believe that the U.S. is currently beating China in the AI race.

• Increasing opposition to data centers: New studies from POLITICO/Public First, Fox News, and Emerson College Polling all found majorities or pluralities of Americans across party lines opposing the construction of data centers in their communities by large margins (24%-41%, 30%-70%, 27%-63% support-oppose). Earlier in January, POLITICO/Public First polled the same question and found 37%-28% support-oppose.

• Digging deep on data centers: A poll from KSTP/SurveyUSA found that the data center opposition in Minnesota was driven largely by concerns about resources as well as general concerns about AI, more than costs or pollution.

• Young adults increasingly negative on AI: A recently published survey from Bentley University-Gallup Business in Society (fielded mid-May) found young adults becoming the most negative on AI, a finding that was echoed by Fox News’s survey.

• Concern about AI’s impact on jobs remains high: The Bentley University-Gallup Business in Society also found that 79% of Americans see AI negatively impacting jobs in the U.S., nearly the same number we found in our survey (76%), which has not moved significantly in the past 6 weeks.

• Experts and public concerned about catastrophic risks: Experts surveyed about various catastrophic harms by AI by MIT said the likelihood of catastrophic harms by 2030 from AI possessing dangerous capabilities is 21.5%, and from cyberattacks or weapons development is 21%. The public is also concerned: in the most recent Americans on AI survey, 67% of Americans said they believe AI is already being used to create weapons of mass destruction–or will be in the future.

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While concern about AI is high across the board—66% in our latest survey—the ways that people see the technology impacting their lives, both good and bad, depends on their level of education.

Based on pooled data from Americans on AI surveys conducted June 25-30 and July 9-13, we’ve found that people with a college degree are more likely than those without to say that AI is negatively impacting jobs and kids, while those with a high school degree or less are relatively more likely to say that AI is negatively impacting household finances.

This division of issues along educational lines, often referred to as education polarization, or the diploma divide, has contributed to the realignment of American political coalitions in the modern era.

Results

Some more things we’re seeing when we dig into differences among education levels:

• Americans with a college degree are more excited (31%) about AI’s growing role in society compared to people with a high-school degree or less (22%).

• Americans with a college degree are more likely to say they’re already seeing people saving time because of AI (57%) than those with a high-school degree or less (39%).

• Americans with a college degree are more likely to believe AI will lead to scientific or medical breakthroughs (74%) than people with a high-school degree or less (58%).

• Americans with a college degree are more likely to say AI is already behaving in ways their developers didn’t intend (36%), compared to people with a high-school degree or less (24%).

• Americans with a college degree are more likely to say the government isn’t doing enough to address AI’s impacts on things like the environment, children, and workers (54–59%), compared to Americans with a high-school degree or less (33-35%).

Another presentation of these first-look findings is in the deck below.

Education First Look

67.9KB ∙ PDF file

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A first look at Americans on AI survey results by education

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Our Take

In reaction to these research findings, Colin Bortner, Athena Insights’ head of research, said:

Much of the recent debate about AI’s impacts has focused on jobs and kids. Those concerns show up at every education level, but they are strongest among college graduates. Household finances, on the other hand, are less of a concern among college-educated Americans than among Americans with a high-school education or less. A debate about the impacts of AI that focuses on jobs and kids but neglects household finances, and other pocketbook issues, risks over-indexing on the concerns of college graduates and ignoring other important American constituencies.

Other News

A few items from the past two weeks that speak to what we found:

• A June poll from Reuters found similar divisions along education lines related to concerns about job loss.

• Last week, the governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, signed the nation’s first statewide moratorium on new data center development. Our polling shows that, by 20 points, Americans want government to do more to address AI’s impacts on the environment, including data centers.

• A new model released by Beijing-based Moonshot AI, Kimi K3, reportedly matches the capabilities of leading U.S. AI models for a fraction of the price, forcing a reckoning in Silicon Valley. The public, however, is divided on whether or not the government should be doing more to protect America’s competitiveness on AI, with only 28% saying the government is doing too little.

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82% of Americans say people are struggling to tell what’s real from what’s fake. Just 17% see AI improving health care. That gap is a theme in the first results from our ongoing survey to understand Americans’ attitudes towards AI today, and how they’re evolving over time.

Every two weeks, working with NORC at the University of Chicago, we ask between 1,000 and 2,000 Americans about their feelings on AI, what they’re seeing in their communities and families, what they expect from the government, and how they picture different AI futures.

We publish our results at Americans On AI and talk about them here, in our newsletter.

Results

For the first edition of our newsletter, we’re giving an overview of what our biweekly survey tells us about Americans today:

Americans are more worried than excited about AI, and few feel they have any say over it. They see the harms around them, and few of the benefits. They want government to do more, and looking further out, many expect the technology to become powerful. And unlike almost everything else in American life, these feelings and experiences barely divide along party lines.

• 65% of Americans are more concerned than excited about AI, versus 24% who are more excited.

• 70% say AI is coming into their lives whether they want it or not. Just 15% feel they can shape how much AI is part of their lives.

• On AI’s effects on children, the environment, and workers, by about 20 points, more people say the government is doing too little than too much.

• 77% think that “AI behaving in ways its developers didn’t intend” is already happening or likely in the future.

• 72% of women are concerned about AI versus 59% of men, with a similar gap between older and younger Americans.

• Whether it’s their level of concern, their sense of control, or what they’re seeing around them, there’s little gap between Republicans and Democrats.

In future newsletters, we’ll zoom in on specific topics, themes, and trends.

Reactions

In discussing our first wave of results, Brendan Steinhauser from The Alliance for Secure AI shared this:

What I find really interesting about these early findings is that it comports very much with what we’ve been hearing on the ground. We spend a lot of time meeting with people across the country, from small informal gatherings, to big events like film festivals and political conventions. And regardless of whether we’re talking to someone from deep red Florida, or a big blue city, the level of concern is the same. People aren’t thinking about AI through a political lens like they do with most other issues.

Results from this wave were also picked up by The Hill and the Daily Caller.

Other News

A few items from the past two weeks that speak to what we found:

• New poll from a progressive group finds AI companies viewed negatively. Data for Progress found that voters rank AI companies among the most negatively viewed actors in American society, in the same tier as cryptocurrency and sports-gambling firms. It fits our topline, where concern about AI runs well ahead of excitement.

• AI was the top-cited reason for U.S. layoffs in June, a fourth straight month. The outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported that employers named AI behind more job cuts than any other factor in June. This is consistent with the 74% of Americans who told us AI is making job security worse.

• AI safety report cards give no major company higher than a C+. The Future of Life Institute graded nine major AI companies across six safety and governance areas, and the top grade was a C+. This expert evaluation grounds our finding that most Americans expect AI to act in ways its developers don’t intend.

• New federal bill would restrict AI chatbots aimed at children. Reps. Valerie Foushee and Greg Casar introduced the People-First Chatbot Act, which would bar training AI on minors’ chat logs and require chatbots to disclose that they are not human. We find most want more action here: by about 20 points, more say the government is doing too little than too much on AI and children.

• States have passed more than 100 AI laws in 2026 so far. By the NYU Center on Technology Policy’s count, state AI laws this year are increasingly focused on child safety, consumer protection, and data centers, and increasingly draw support from both parties. Several also passed measures to shield households from the electricity costs of AI data centers.

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