Young people increasingly don't trust AI - or the billionaires that keep telling us we should all love AI, survey finds

Date:
Fri, 14 Aug 2026 17:05:00 +0000

Description:
Survey of younger Americans finds increasing distrust in AI and the people
who own and run the technology.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Study finds young people are increasingly pessimistic about AI Nearly half say AI will have a negative impact on their careers They're also suspicious of leading AI figures and executives Younger Americans are becoming increasingly distrustful not only
of AI, but also the executives and evangelists who promote the technology, a new study has claimed.

A CNBC/Generation Labs survey of 1,088 Americans between the ages of 18 and
34 found the vast majority saying they distrusted the leaders of major companies investing in AI, including the likes of Elon Musk, Sam Altman and Mark Zuckerberg. The reasons behind this distrust were fairly clear to spot - with nearly half (45%) of respondents saying AI would have a negative impact on their careers, compared to just 10% who believed the technology will help them. Latest Videos From TechRadar Watch full video here: AI villains The study covered a range of wider concerns young people may have around the future, with worries around the economy and jobs among the biggest pressures, however the threat of AI was seemingly ever-present, with the technology increasingly influencing all areas of everyday life.

This expands to the figures becoming the poster children for AI - respondents were given nine key people in the AI industry and asked whether they trusted each of them to act responsibly on AI moving forward. You may like New study finds most Americans think the pace of AI development is moving too fast Nearly half of us wish we could just click our fingers and make generative AI disappear Study finds people are starting to fear sounding like AI

Perhaps unsurprisingly, every figure was marked negatively - with Palantir
CEO Alex Karp scoring the worst, as 81% of respondents saying they do not trust him. Karp was followed by Palantir Chairman Peter Thiel (79%), Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai (75%) and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei (75%).

Other notable figures, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk all scored
about the same 70% figure - but there was 'better' news for Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who recorded the "highest" score, with just 65% of respondents saying they dont trust him. Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter Sign
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Looking at technology's place in the wider world, 40% of Americans said they believed the federal government should establish rules for AI, with just over a third (36%) believing an independent expert body should do so - and just 8% said they think AI shouldnt be regulated.

Keeping with the spirit of protests across the nation, nearly two-thirds
(60%) of Americans believed data center construction must be slowed, with
just 15% saying they wanted to be speeding it up.

Looking forward, the when asked about how they would rate the American economy, nearly 80% said they had a negative sentiment - and when asked about the future of the economy, 50% believed it will get worse, compared with just 22% who said it will get better. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us
as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds.



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/pro/young-people-increasingly-dont-trust-ai-or-the-b illionaires-that-keep-telling-us-we-should-all-love-ai-survey-finds


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