05/28/2025

Americans to Business: Slow Down AI and Get It Right

Source: Axios/Harris Poll 100 / Scott Rosenberg, May 27, 2025

While the tech industry floors the pedal on AI, the U.S. public would be happy to hit the brakes.

Stunning stat: More than three-quarters of Americans (77%) want companies to create AI slowly and get it right the first time, even if that delays breakthroughs, the 2025 Axios Harris 100 poll found.

Only 23% of Americans want companies to develop AI quickly to speed breakthroughs, even at the price of mistakes along the way.

Why it matters: CEOs, investors and tech companies have pushed the narrative of a do-or-die AI race — but most people would rather get AI right than get it first.

Between the lines: This finding is consistent across generational lines, but the margins vary.

• 91% of boomers and 77% of Gen X favor slower AI.
• That number drops to 63% for millennials — but rises again to 74% for Gen Z, the youngest and most "digital native."

The big picture: The notion of an AI "race" has shaped the new technology's development at every level.

• The leading "frontier developers" of AI — notably OpenAI, Google and Anthropic, with xAI and Meta also in the game — believe they are racing toward "artificial general intelligence," or AGI, a level of AI that surpasses human capabilities.
• AI makers broadly see themselves in a race with one another to build faster, more reliable and more efficient models.
• Every other company sees itself in a race to put AI to work in different industries.
• Nations — chiefly the U.S. and China — also imagine a race for global AI dominance.

Yes, but: All this racing has spurred investment and development, but the public hasn't yet bought into the narrative.

For many users, AI remains a solution in search of a problem.

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