A new national poll reveals a sharply divided public when it comes to the growing influence of artificial intelligence. While Americans acknowledge the benefits of AI in medical innovation, they remain deeply skeptical of its impact on education, jobs, and independent thinking among young people.
The Quinnipiac University national poll, released April 16, 2025, surveyed over 1,500 U.S. adults and found broad concern about the social and economic effects of AI. Just 12% of Americans say they know “a great deal” about AI, while nearly one in five admit they know “hardly anything.”
AI seen as threat to education, benefit to medicine
- 54% of Americans think AI will do more harm than good in education
- Only 32% think it will improve learning outcomes
- In contrast, 59% say AI will do more good than harm in medical advances
“Americans are wary of AI’s impact on daily life. In classrooms, the concern only deepens,” said Dr. Chetan Jaiswal, a computer science professor at Quinnipiac.
Job fears and AI’s economic divide
A majority of Americans (56%) believe AI will reduce the number of job opportunities in the U.S. However, only 21% of employed adults are personally concerned that AI will make their own jobs obsolete.
This contrast is what researchers call the “workforce paradox”—broad fear of job displacement without individual anxiety.
Other key findings:
- Only 13% of adults think AI will create more jobs
- 39% of working Americans are learning new AI-related skills
- College-educated workers are twice as likely to upskill compared to those without degrees
Trust and transparency remain major issues
Public trust in AI remains low:
- 75% of Americans say they trust AI-generated information only some of the time or hardly ever
- 73% say businesses are not transparent about their use of AI
- 69% believe the government is not doing enough to regulate AI
Moreover, just 5% of Americans think AI is being developed by people or organizations that represent their interests.
Deep concern for the next generation
Perhaps the most striking result: 83% of Americans worry AI will diminish the ability of young people to think for themselves. Women (86%) expressed more concern than men (79%), and even Gen Z respondents were overwhelmingly worried about their generation’s dependency on AI tools like chatbots.
Mixed comfort with AI decision-making
Americans are far more comfortable with AI helping law enforcement than making personal decisions:
- 53% support AI-assisted facial recognition for identifying suspects
- Just 30% are comfortable with AI screening job applications
- Only 23% support AI reviewing health insurance claims
AI usage: Common, but not constant
About 41% of Americans use AI tools like ChatGPT or Google Gemini at least occasionally. Common uses include:
- 37%: researching topics
- 24%: school or work projects
- 18%: writing emails
- 17%: analyzing data
- 16%: creating images
Despite this, only 4% of users fully trust the information generated by these tools, and experts caution that many Americans are using them without understanding their limitations.
This content is brought to you by the FingerLakes1.com Team. Support our mission by visiting www.patreon.com/fl1 or learn how you send us your local content here.