A picture of Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and other tech executives seated across from President Trump and Melania Trump during the White House dinner last year went viral and was interpreted in a variety of ways by different people. For the executives present, it portended a new phase of collaboration between Silicon Valley and Washington, a mutual recognition that artificial intelligence would be the key focus of the upcoming decade. It appears that many voters saw it as something quite different.
According to a recent NBC News survey from late February and early March 2026, 57% of registered voters think there are more risks associated with AI than advantages. Just 26% of people think favorably of the technology. Only the Democratic Party and Iran received a lower net positive rating than AI in the same survey, which covered a wide range of topics.
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Poll | NBC News national poll — conducted by Public Opinion Strategies (Republican) and Hart Research Associates (Democrat) |
| Field Dates | February 27 – March 3, 2026 |
| Sample | 1,000 registered voters; mix of telephone and text-based online interviews |
| Margin of Error | ±3.1 percentage points |
| Key Finding 1 | 57% of registered voters say AI risks outweigh benefits; 34% say the opposite |
| Key Finding 2 | 46% of voters hold negative views of AI; only 26% hold positive views |
| Comparative Ranking | Only the Democratic Party and Iran scored lower net positive ratings than AI |
| Neither Party Trusted on AI | 33% say neither party handles AI well; 20% say Republicans; 19% say Democrats; 24% say about the same |
| Most Negative Demographic | Voters 18–34 (net favorability: −44); women 18–49 (−41) |
| Most Positive Demographic | Men 50+ (+2); upper-class voters (+2) |
| AI Usage Rate | 56% of voters used AI in the last two months; 77% of professional managers; 50% of blue-collar workers |
| Job Market Context | Job market contracted in 5 of the last 9 months; record 25% of unemployed hold four-year degrees |
| Stanford Study | Workers ages 22–25 in high-AI-exposure industries saw a 16% relative employment decline since late 2022 |
| Pew Comparison | In 2021, 37% were more concerned than excited about AI; by June 2025, 50% — a significant shift |
| Reference Website | NBC News — Poll: Majority of Voters Say Risks of AI Outweigh the Benefits |
That’s a striking destination. In order to make its case, the industry has spent billions of dollars and years publishing research papers, funding university departments, promising productivity gains, and announcing partnerships with governments, hospitals, and school systems. After considering all of that, the majority of Americans have come to a conclusion that is more akin to skepticism than enthusiasm. The same narrative is presented over a longer period of time in a Pew Research Center tracking survey.
37% of American adults stated in 2021 that they were more worried than enthusiastic about AI’s expanding use in daily life. That percentage increased to 50% by June 2025. There are now five times as many Americans in the worried camp as in the enthusiastic one. It is not a slight change. That represents a significant shift in public opinion during a time when investment in AI has been increasing rather than decreasing.
The NBC News poll’s demographic breakdown challenges some simple presumptions, making it worthwhile to consider. The youth who have grown up with smartphones and social media, who are most likely to use AI tools in the workplace and at school, are not the enthusiasts that the media occasionally portrays them as being. The net favorability rating for AI among voters between the ages of 18 and 34 is negative 44.
The reading of negative 41 is almost the same for women between the ages of 18 and 49. These figures follow a particular pattern: they closely correspond with the workers who are most economically vulnerable to job displacement due to AI. According to a Stanford research team, employment for workers between the ages of 22 and 25 in sectors with the greatest exposure to generative AI has decreased by 16% since late 2022. Some of the earliest obvious effects are being felt by entry-level professional positions, which were once the first rung on a career ladder.
Men over 50 and upper-class voters, both at plus 2, are the only demographic groups with a net positive opinion of AI, albeit slim. That’s almost mathematically neat: the only people who benefit even slightly are those with the most established careers, the largest financial cushion, and the least immediate exposure to displacement.
Micah Roberts, a Republican pollster whose company co-conducted the survey, pointed out that while the data indicates that opposition to AI decreases as income and education levels rise, the majority is still negative even across the majority of education bands. A close examination of these figures refutes the notion that worries about AI are mostly the result of ignorance or technophobia.
Additionally, there is the political aspect, which is truly unique. Only 20% of respondents to NBC News’ question about which party is better at handling AI said Republicans, and 19% said Democrats. This is the smallest partisan advantage either party claimed on any topic in the survey. According to one-third of voters, neither party was performing well.
One interpretation of AI is that it’s “up for grabs,” according to Republican pollster Bill McInturff. Another way to interpret it is that, given the current state of policy, voters are right to believe that neither party knows what to do. The primary topics of discussion in Congress regarding AI have been data center electricity costs, children’s online safety, and military applications. These are legitimate concerns, but they do not explain the emotional significance of these figures.
When questioned about concerns about job displacement, President Trump used the well-known technology-anxiety defense, claiming that everyone was afraid of the internet and that’s what happened. He may be correct that the long-term picture will be more benign.
People are living in a short-term reality, though, with five months of job market contraction in the last nine months, a record percentage of unemployed college graduates, and a 16% employment decline among young workers in AI-exposed sectors. They are not speculating about AI. The NBC News poll is one way to gauge what they see while they watch something happen.
