Most say Trump, Congress not taking AI risk seriously: Survey

Most U.S. voters want more safeguards on artificial intelligence and think the federal government has fallen short in confronting the powerful technology’s risks, according to a new poll.

In a Reuters/Ipsos survey released Wednesday, 57 percent of respondents said they believe the Trump administration is not taking the risks posed by AI seriously enough, while 54 percent said the same of Congress.

Concerns extended across party lines. Eighty percent of Democrats and 61 percent of Republicans said they support stricter government regulation of AI.

The findings come as the rapid expansion of AI has increasingly collided with concerns over job security, energy costs and public safety — issues campaigns are working to address ahead of next month’s midterm elections.

Following several incidents of AI models going rogue and breaching other systems without authorization, including OpenAI’s incident with Hugging Face and federal government websites, nearly two-thirds of voters said they believe AI could eventually spiral beyond human control.

President Trump, who recently dubbed the technology “superintelligence,” has dismissed concerns about the technology and the need to impose stricter rules.

Trump has pushed for rapid development of AI and the data centers needed to power it, arguing the U.S. risks losing ground to China in the global race for AI dominance if it places too many restrictions on the industry.

The poll found opposition to the rapid construction of data centers, with 56 percent of voters saying they support limits on new data center construction, including 69 percent of Democrats and 43 percent of Republicans.

The Trump administration has largely favored voluntary safeguards over sweeping federal regulations. Last week, Trump announced that executives from the world’s leading tech companies, including Nvidia, SpaceX, Meta, Anthropic and Google, had agreed to a “morally-binding” self-policing pledge that involved a series of safety measures, including external reviews of their AI systems.

According to the survey, voters were particularly concerned about the technology’s effect on the job market. Eighty-four percent said AI poses a threat to American workers, compared with 74 percent who said the same about competition from foreign workers and 60 percent who viewed illegal immigration as a threat to U.S. workers.

In a statement to Reuters, a White House official pointed to a newly created AI task force aimed at maintaining U.S. leadership in the technology. The official also told the outlet that the administration is focused on creating a strong economy that can withstand what they described as potential short-term disruptions to the workforce.