{"slug": "americans-are-largely-divided-on-whether-to-pace-ai-if-it-means-risk-losing-the", "title": "Americans Are Largely Divided On Whether To Pace AI If It Means Risk Losing The Race With China: Poll", "summary": "A POLITICO/Public First poll found 43% of Americans said it would be acceptable for the U.S. to fall behind other countries if it meant developing AI more responsibly and securely, while 37% said the country should not stand down from international competition even if staying ahead required taking risks. Among 2024 Trump voters the split was sharper, with 50% favoring continued competition and 38% accepting a slower pace for safer development, and 63% of all respondents said there was a real possibility AI could eventually destroy humanity. The divide is mirrored in Congress, where House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) rejected stopping AI development as surrender and said his committee might not take up AI legislation before next year, while Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) have called for a ban on developing \"superintelligence.", "body_md": "# Americans Are Largely Divided On Whether To Pace AI If It Means Risk Losing The Race With China: Poll\n\n## The public divide is also playing out in Congress as lawmakers debate new safeguards while Washington and Beijing compete over advanced models and chips.\n\nMost Americans acknowledge potentially serious dangers from increasingly powerful [artificial intelligence](https://www.ibtimes.com/social-tags/artificial-intelligence), but there is less agreement over whether the United States should accept losing ground to China and other countries to reduce those risks.\n\nA new [POLITICO Poll](https://www.politico.com/news/2026/09/16/poll-china-ai-competition-01081632) found 43% of respondents said it would be acceptable for the U.S. to fall behind other countries if doing so meant developing AI more responsibly and securely. Another 37%, however, said the country should not stand down from the international competition even if staying ahead required taking risks.\n\nThe divide was sharper among voters who backed [President Donald Trump](https://www.ibtimes.com/topic/president-donald-trump) in the 2024 election, with 50% favoring continued competition and 38% saying it was acceptable to fall behind for safer development. The poll was conducted by POLITICO and independent polling company Public First.\n\nThose differences emerged even though concerns about advanced AI has extended across the electorate. In another finding released from the survey, 63% of respondents said there was a real possibility that AI could eventually destroy humanity. Researchers and technology executives disagree widely over the likelihood and timing of catastrophic outcomes from advanced AI systems.\n\nSimilar divisions are taking shape in Congress, where lawmakers are considering how much federal oversight to impose on AI companies while the U.S. competes with China for leadership in the technology. Republicans interviewed by the outlet largely argued that slowing American development would give Beijing an advantage, while Democrats who expressed concerns about Chinese competition were more supportive of additional safeguards.\n\nHouse Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., rejected the idea of stopping AI development during POLITICO's Decoded AI Summit in Washington on Wednesday, saying doing so would amount to surrender. Guthrie also said AI legislation was complicated enough that his committee might not take it up before next year.\n\nHouse Speaker Mike Johnson has made a similar argument, saying Tuesday that the U.S. could not impose a moratorium without sacrificing its competitive position against China. Johnson said AI companies should largely regulate themselves and that Washington needed to maintain its technological lead.\n\nTrump has also tied his opposition to additional AI regulation directly to competition with Beijing. After a series of warnings from technology executives and researchers about advanced models, the president said this week that existing criminal and regulatory authorities were sufficient to police AI companies and described the push for additional regulation as a \"hoax.\"\n\nCalls for stronger safeguards have grown after several prominent AI executives publicly discussed slowing the pace of development. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei proposed giving independent evaluators greater access to advanced models and coordinating safety measures internationally, while OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and xAI's Elon Musk have also supported coordinated efforts to give safeguards more time to develo.p.\n\nDemocrats pushing for stronger restrictions have argued that competition with China should not prevent Washington from addressing those concerns. Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, has joined Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., in calling for a ban on the development of \"superintelligence.\"\n\nCasar told the POLITICO summit that the competition should not be treated as an arms race the United States must win, while Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Ariz., argued that Washington could pursue technological leadership and stronger safety measures at the same time. Stanton serves on the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.\n\nRepublicans who have regularly pushed for tougher policies toward Beijing have generally been more reluctant to restrict domestic AI development. Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., told POLITICO that he was \"very reluctant to hinder AI\" through regulation because the U.S. could not afford to fall behind China.\n\nTrump is scheduled to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in Washington on Sept. 24, with AI expected to be among the issues surrounding the talks. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he would meet Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng beforehand to discuss AI-related matters.\n\nBeyond commercial competition, U.S. and Chinese security specialists have discussed safeguards involving military uses of AI, including keeping humans in control of consequential cyber operations and nuclear systems. Those discussions have taken on added relevance as wars in the Middle East and elsewhere have increased attention on autonomous weapons, cyber operations and the military use of emerging technologies.\n\nChina's Foreign Minister Wang Yi and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed preparations for high-level interactions during a call Thursday, one week before the expected Trump-Xi meeting.\n\n© Copyright IBTimes 2026. All rights reserved.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/americans-are-largely-divided-on-whether-to-pace-ai-if-it-means-risk-losing-the", "canonical_source": "https://www.ibtimes.com/americans-are-largely-divided-whether-pace-ai-if-it-means-risk-losing-race-china-poll-3807587", "published_at": "2026-09-18 10:11:01+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-09-18 10:54:22.995477+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-policy", "ai-safety", "artificial-intelligence"], "entities": ["POLITICO", "Public First", "Donald Trump", "Brett Guthrie", "Mike Johnson", "Dario Amodei", "Anthropic", "OpenAI"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/americans-are-largely-divided-on-whether-to-pace-ai-if-it-means-risk-losing-the", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/americans-are-largely-divided-on-whether-to-pace-ai-if-it-means-risk-losing-the.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/americans-are-largely-divided-on-whether-to-pace-ai-if-it-means-risk-losing-the.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/americans-are-largely-divided-on-whether-to-pace-ai-if-it-means-risk-losing-the.jsonld"}}