People around the world already see a winner in the AI race — and it’s not the US
Artificial intelligence has become the hottest topic on the planet, and everyone wants to know who is going to come out on top in this technology race. But here is the curious part: while much of the world still looks at AI with hope, the United States is heading in the opposite direction. And that is not all — a recent global survey suggests that people already see China as the big winner in this contest, leaving the Americans behind both in international perception and in the domestic appetite to move forward in a unified way.
The survey conducted by Public First, which has been polling respondents annually between 2024 and 2026, shed some really interesting light on how American public opinion has shifted over the past two years. The numbers are eye-opening and show a trend that goes far beyond a simple statistical fluctuation.
In 2024, 39% of Americans believed AI would improve society, versus 34% who thought it would make things worse. In 2025, those numbers ticked up slightly to 40% and 36%, respectively. But in 2026 the picture flipped entirely: now, only 31% believe the technology will improve things, while 40% are convinced it will make them worse. This reversal did not happen out of nowhere, and understanding the path that led to it is key to grasping what is changing in the relationship between people and technology.
Confidence that AI will improve respondents’ personal lives also plummeted. The net positive balance of 15 points recorded in 2024 shrank to just 5 points this year. When it comes to the impact on future generations, the deterioration is even more dramatic: the positive balance of 10 points turned into a negative balance of 4 points.
And the most striking data point comes from one specific group:
- Young Americans between 18 and 24, who previously had a positive view of the social impact of AI, shifted to a marked pessimism in just one year
- The change went from a positive margin of 4 points in 2025 to a negative margin of 13 points in 2026
- A dramatic drop that says a lot about how this generation is facing the future
- Young respondents in the United Kingdom mirrored similar results
On the other side of the globe, the picture is quite different. In countries like Singapore and India, there is a widespread and persistent belief that AI will positively impact society. The two countries with the most negative attitudes toward the technology? The United States and Canada.
What is behind this shift? Fear of job loss, misinformation, deepfakes, concerns about the energy consumption of data centers, and even violent reactions from local communities all make the list. Let’s dig deeper into what these numbers reveal and what they could mean for the future of AI. 👇
What the numbers are really saying
When a survey shows such a clear reversal in such a short time, it is a sign that something significant happened along the way. Public First polled a representative sample across 15 different countries, and what they found is not just a statistical blip — it is a shift in perception that reflects real day-to-day experiences. People are interacting with artificial intelligence in increasingly concrete ways: tools that automate tasks, algorithms that decide what shows up in the feed, systems that screen resumes before any human reads a single line. And this closer contact, instead of building comfort, is building discomfort.
The jump to 40% of Americans believing AI will make society worse is a number that deserves serious attention. We are not talking about a radical minority or a group with limited access to technology. We are talking about a significant slice of the population in one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world — people who interact daily with AI-powered products and services and who, despite that — or perhaps because of it — are growing increasingly skeptical. This data point challenges the narrative that familiarity with technology, by itself, breeds acceptance.
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On the flip side, the 31% who still hold an optimistic view represent a considerable decline from previous years. What is interesting to note is that this group has not vanished entirely — it has simply shrunk. This suggests that the conversation about the benefits of AI still has room, but it is clearly losing ground to concerns. The social impact of the technology is being felt in ways that promises of innovation, on their own, are not managing to offset in public perception.
The survey also reveals something even more significant in geopolitical terms: people around the world do not just see the United States falling behind China in the AI race — they also sense that the country may lack the unified public appetite needed to push forward aggressively in this space. It is a double blow to the image of the US as the global technology leader.
Why young people are leading the pessimism
Perhaps the most surprising finding in this survey is the behavior of young people between 18 and 24. This is the generation that grew up with a smartphone in hand, that learned to use social media before learning to drive, that wove digital tools into their daily routine in ways older generations are still trying to keep up with. You would expect this group to be the most excited about the arrival of generative AI, advanced virtual assistants, and everything that comes with this technological wave. But the data tells a different story: they went from a positive margin of 4 points in 2025 to a negative margin of 13 points in 2026, a swing of 17 points in just one year.
This shift makes a lot more sense when you start looking at the context these young people find themselves in. They are precisely the generation entering the job market at a moment when automation is reshaping which skills have value. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei issued a warning that resonated loudly: AI could eliminate half of entry-level office jobs within the next one to five years. When one of the most influential executives in the industry makes a prediction like that, the psychological impact on people just starting their careers is enormous.
Degrees that used to open doors are being questioned, creative fields that seemed immune to automation now face direct competition from image, text, and code generation tools. Anxiety about the professional future is real and well-documented among this age group, and AI has become a central character in this narrative of uncertainty. This is not pessimism born from ignorance — it is pessimism born from firsthand experience with the consequences.
There is another factor that weighs heavily on this group: intense exposure to deepfakes, AI-generated misinformation, and content manipulation on platforms they use every single day. Young Americans are on the front lines of digital content consumption and, consequently, are also on the front lines of the negative effects AI is having on the quality of online information. Seeing familiar faces in fake videos, encountering automatically generated news, and being unable to tell what is real from what is fabricated creates a climate of distrust that goes far beyond the technology itself — it contaminates the entire relationship with information. 😬
The flood of AI-generated content on social media
Social media platforms are facing a tidal wave of AI-generated content that can be produced at unprecedented speeds. This phenomenon is changing the internet in ways few predicted, and the public’s reaction has not been positive.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg described AI as the next major leap in the evolution of his platforms. According to him, social media has already gone through two eras: the first, when all content came from friends, family, and accounts you followed directly; and the second, when creator content was added to the mix. Now, with AI making it easier to create and remix content, a massive volume of additional material is being layered on top of those existing foundations.
This optimistic vision from a business perspective contrasts sharply with what everyday users are feeling. For a lot of people, the explosion of artificial content on social media means more noise, less authenticity, and a growing difficulty in knowing what to trust. Misinformation and deepfakes landed at the top of Americans’ list of concerns in the Public First survey, and it is not hard to see why.
The concrete fears behind the distrust
Distrust of artificial intelligence is not abstract — it has a real address and very real consequences. One of the main drivers of American pessimism is the fear of job loss. Unlike previous economic crises, where automation primarily hit repetitive and manual functions, generative AI is advancing on work that requires creativity, analysis, communication, and judgment — exactly the kind of work on which the American middle class built its stability.
When a junior lawyer, a designer, a copywriter, or a financial analyst starts seeing AI tools doing parts of their job in seconds, the natural reaction is not excitement — it is alarm. And that alarm is showing up in the survey numbers in a very clear way.
The issue of misinformation and deepfakes also deserves attention, because it carries a very specific political dimension in the United States. The country went through highly polarized elections, and the use of AI to create fake content, manipulate images of public figures, and spread misleading narratives was a topic that dominated the public debate. When the technology that was supposed to represent progress starts being associated with threats to democracy and election integrity, maintaining a positive view of it becomes a tough sell.
The environmental impact of data centers is on the radar
There is also a concern that is growing steadily and quickly: the environmental impact of AI. The survey numbers speak for themselves — in 2024, 52% of respondents said they were worried about the technology’s use of natural resources. In 2026, that number jumped to two out of every three respondents, a significant increase that shows this issue has moved from the margins to the center of people’s concerns.
The data centers powering large language models consume staggering amounts of energy and frequently rely on water-based cooling systems. And this environmental cost is no longer just a theoretical worry — it is generating very real pushback in communities across the country.
Local resistance to data centers has rattled elected officials in multiple areas. In a town in Missouri, half the city council was voted out after approving a 6-billion-dollar data center. In Indianapolis, a week after a rezoning plan was approved to accommodate a data center developer’s project, a council member reported that his home was shot at, and a note reading NO DATA CENTERS was left on the front porch. These incidents show the level of tension that the expansion of AI infrastructure is generating in American communities.
Against this backdrop, President Trump issued in March what he called a taxpayer protection commitment, asking major tech companies to provide or pay for their own electricity supply as they rapidly establish computing centers across the country. It is an official acknowledgment that the energy cost of AI has become a top-tier political issue.
The global contrast: where AI still inspires optimism
While the United States and Canada lead the pessimism rankings when it comes to artificial intelligence, other countries maintain a significantly more positive outlook. Singapore and India stand out as examples of nations where the belief that AI will benefit society is widespread and persistent across all three years of the survey.
This contrast raises important questions. What makes populations in different parts of the world have such distinct perceptions of the same technology? Part of the answer may lie in the stage of economic development and expectations about what AI can deliver. In countries where technology is seen as a lever for opportunity and social mobility, receptiveness tends to be higher. In mature economies, where many workers feel they have something to lose, distrust grows more easily.
The fact that the survey spans 15 different countries gives a global dimension to the phenomenon and helps illustrate that the relationship between society and AI is not monolithic. Each culture, each economy, and each political context shapes this perception in unique ways. 🌍
What this scenario means for the future
The decline in American confidence toward artificial intelligence does not necessarily mean the technology will slow down. Companies continue pouring in billions, products keep launching, and the integration of AI into the country’s digital infrastructure continues at full speed. But what these numbers signal is that there is a growing disconnect between the pace of technology adoption and the pace of building public trust. And that disconnect has practical consequences: it affects people’s willingness to use new tools, influences the regulatory debate, and shapes an entire generation’s expectations about the role of technology in society.
For tech companies, this scenario is a signal worth taking seriously. The narrative that AI will solve all of humanity’s problems is clearly not winning the battle of perceptions. What is missing is not more technology — it is more transparency, more accountability, and more concrete evidence that the benefits are reaching everyday people, not just those at the top of the economic ladder.
Public opinion is calling for a different conversation, less hype and more honesty about the real challenges. And when that demand comes from multiple angles at the same time — concern about jobs, misinformation, the environment, and the concentration of power in the hands of a few companies — ignoring it is not a viable long-term option.
For the young people leading this pessimism, the takeaway may be even more important. They are not against technology — they want it to work in a better, fairer, and safer way. This generation has an enormous ability to push for change, whether as consumers or as the professionals who will build the next systems. Their pessimism is not necessarily the end of the story with AI — it could be the beginning of a more mature and demanding relationship with it. 🤔
And perhaps the most important takeaway from this survey is for anyone who still thinks the US holds an unquestioned lead in the AI race. The world is looking the other way, and domestic public opinion seems less and less willing to go along for the ride without asking questions. The race continues, but the terms on which it is being contested are changing — and fast.
