A majority of Americans — 57% — now say artificial intelligence is a bad thing for society, while about two-thirds oppose the construction of new data centers in the United States, according to a new ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll conducted using Ipsos' KnowledgePanel. Opposition to data centers rises even higher when respondents are asked about construction in their own communities.
The survey, published October 21 by ABC News polling writer Emily Guskin, captures a striking pessimism gap between how Americans view AI as a societal force and how they view it personally — and it lands at a moment when Washington is actively debating how far to go in slowing the technology down. For more context on this story, see our ongoing latest AI developments.
Young Americans Are the Most Skeptical
The generational pattern in the poll inverts many older technology adoption curves. Among Americans under 30, 65% say AI is bad for society, along with 59% of those aged 30 to 39. Americans 40 and older are only slightly less negative, with 53% calling AI bad for society.
The partisan split is also lopsided. Majorities of Democrats (63%) and independents (58%) say AI is bad for society, while Republicans are nearly even — 51% say AI is good for society against 47% who say it is bad.
Intensity runs firmly with the pessimists: just 2% of Americans say AI is "extremely" good for society, while 17% say it is extremely bad.
Personally Good, Socially Bad
Asked about AI's effect on their own lives, Americans are far more split: 50% say AI is good for them personally and 49% say it is bad. Yet even here the negative intensity is five times larger — 15% say AI is extremely bad for them personally, versus 3% who say it is extremely good.
Personal politics flip the personal question. A majority of Republicans (57%) say AI is personally good for them, while a similar majority of Democrats (55%) say it is personally bad. Independents are split at 50% good and 49% bad.
Hacking and Job Loss Top the Risk List
When asked about specific risks from the growth of AI, majorities rate most consequences as high risk. About three-quarters of Americans — 73% — say there is a high risk of AI hacking secure computer systems, with majorities across partisan and age groups. Roughly two-thirds, 65%, say there is a high risk of AI growth leading to the elimination of many jobs, again including majorities across demographic groups.
A Backdrop of Political Conflict
The poll's release follows a turbulent stretch in AI politics. Technology leaders have issued repeated warnings about AI's potential threats and called for steps to slow development before systems outsmart humans, and lawmakers have weighed what action — if any — to take in response.
President Donald Trump, who has called warnings about AI a "hoax," met with several technology executives at the White House last month, saying they had signed a "constitution" to police themselves, according to ABC News. A September 29, 2026 press briefing outside the West Wing gathered Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, Tesla and SpaceX's Elon Musk, Nvidia's Jensen Huang, House Speaker Mike Johnson and other AI executives.
Against that backdrop, the data center numbers may carry the most immediate political weight. Local opposition to data center construction has become one of the most tangible friction points in the AI buildout, and the poll suggests national opinion now leans the same direction — with roughly two-thirds of Americans opposed to new facilities, and stronger opposition still for projects in their own neighborhoods.
That distinction matters because data centers are where AI's abstract risks become concrete local debates: power contracts, water use, noise, and land. The poll's findings on perceived risk track the same pattern of proximity-driven concern. Americans rate AI's most concrete, imaginable harms — compromised computer systems and eliminated jobs — as the highest risks, with 73% calling AI hacking of secure systems a high risk and 65% saying the same of widespread job elimination. Majorities rated most of the potential consequences tested in the survey as high risk, according to ABC News.
The cross-party breadth of those risk perceptions is notable. On questions like hacking and job loss, the poll found majorities across partisan groups and age groups, meaning the risk consensus is considerably wider than the partisan split on whether AI is good or bad for society. Republicans, who lean positive on AI overall, still overwhelmingly identify security and employment risks.
Tech leaders themselves have issued warnings about the threat of AI and called for steps to slow it down before it outsmarts humans, as ABC News notes in its summary of the survey context. Following those warnings, lawmakers have weighed what — if any — action should be taken.
Why the Numbers Matter for Industry and Policymakers
Surveys of public sentiment do not set policy by themselves, but they shape the environment in which zoning boards, state legislatures, and Congress operate. A finding that 57% of the public views AI negatively — and that opposition to the physical infrastructure of AI exceeds opposition to the software — gives ammunition to both AI-skeptical lawmakers and community groups fighting specific projects.
For the industry, the poll complicates the standard playbook of emphasizing consumer benefit. Americans distinguish clearly between AI's usefulness to them as individuals and its aggregate effect on the country, and the intensity of negative feeling — concentrated among the young, who are typically the most enthusiastic adopters of new technology — suggests the concern is not simply unfamiliarity or generational wariness.
The survey was conducted using Ipsos' KnowledgePanel, a probability-based online panel, and included interviews across party lines and age groups, according to ABC News. Full toplines and methodology are published with the poll.
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