# Americans Report Low Confidence in AI's Societal Impact > Source: > Published: 2026-06-17 20:23:57.651079+00:00 # Americans Report Low Confidence in AI's Societal Impact A new Pew Research Center survey, reported by TechCrunch and Gizmodo, finds only **16%** of Americans say AI will have a positive impact on society over the next 20 years, while about **40%** say its impact will be negative. Pew also reports that **44%** of U.S. adults say they use OpenAI's ChatGPT, and about **24-25%** of respondents say they use AI chatbots daily. The survey finds broad skepticism: **67%** doubt the U.S. government will meaningfully regulate AI and **59%** do not trust companies to develop it safely. Younger adults are more likely to use chatbots but express notably negative expectations; Pew reports only **14%** of those under 30 expect a positive impact. Reporting notes chatbot market shares with ChatGPT highest, followed by Gemini, Copilot, Meta AI, Grok, Claude, and Character.ai. ### What happened Pew Research Center's new national survey, as reported by TechCrunch and Gizmodo, finds that just **16%** of Americans say AI will have a positive impact on society over the next 20 years, while roughly **40%** expect a negative impact. Pew reports **44%** of U.S. adults now say they use OpenAI's ChatGPT. The survey also finds about **24-25%** of respondents use AI chatbots daily. Pew reports **67%** of Americans do not believe the U.S. government will meaningfully regulate AI and **59%** do not trust companies to develop AI safely. The polling shows age skews in usage and attitudes: younger adults use chatbots at higher rates but are more likely to view AI negatively, with Pew reporting **14%** of those under 30 expect a positive societal impact. ### Technical details Editorial analysis - technical context: Public metrics in the Pew results that matter to practitioners are adoption rates and task patterns. Reported daily-use levels (about **24-25%**) and dominant ChatGPT usage (** 44%**) indicate AI chat interfaces are now mainstream for research and work tasks, per the survey coverage. For data teams and ML engineers, mainstream usage increases the importance of robust hallucination mitigation, provenance, and rate-limit telemetry, because more end users encountering model outputs raises operational risk exposure. ### Context and significance High levels of public skepticism reported by Pew, including distrust of government regulation (**67%**) and companies (** 59%**), change the environment in which AI products are developed and deployed. Observers have recently linked public sentiment to accelerated policy attention and vendor transparency demands; practitioners should view these poll results as one signal among regulators, customers, and enterprise buyers about expectations for safety, explainability, and accountability. ### What to watch For practitioners: monitor three indicators that follow from the Pew findings and the reporting: - •changes in regulatory proposals and oversight activity that reference public concern - •vendor disclosures and third-party audits addressing trust and safety - •shifts in product metrics for user-reported errors, provenance tagging adoption, and enterprise procurement standards. Also watch longitudinal Pew or Gallup polling for whether younger cohorts' skepticism persists as usage matures ### Notes on sources The numeric claims above come from the Pew Research Center survey as reported by TechCrunch and Gizmodo on June 17, 2026. Where the coverage lists chatbot market shares, both outlets report ChatGPT highest and list Gemini, Copilot, Meta AI, Grok, Claude, and Character.ai as trailing options. ## Scoring Rationale The poll documents mainstream chatbot adoption and strong public skepticism, both relevant to practitioners managing risk, deployment, and stakeholder expectations. It is notable but not paradigm-shifting for core model research. Practice interview problems based on real data 1,500+ SQL & Python problems across 15 industry datasets — the exact type of data you work with. [Try 250 free problems](/problems)