The Economist and YouGov asked respondents to describe the risks and benefits of AI in their own words, and classified the responses with an AI tool. The most commonly cited area of worry is the loss of human control, followed by job loss and harm to humans.
The most commonly mentioned expected benefits of AI are medical and health care advances, increased productivity, and scientific and technological advances.
Americans are more likely to trust Democrats more than Republicans to handle AI than to trust Republicans more (37% vs. 31%, with 33% trusting both parties equally). Likely voters — U.S. adult citizens who are either registered to vote or say they will be registered by the November elections, and who say they definitely will vote in November or already have voted — are especially likely to prefer Democrats on AI. 47% of likely voters prefer Democrats and 33% prefer Republicans, while all other American citizens are closely split (25% vs. 28%).
MAGA Republicans overwhelmingly trust Republicans more to handle AI (87%), but only 52% of non-MAGA Republicans do; 42% say they trust both parties equally on the issue.
