Young Americans growing more distrustful of AI and its billionaire advocates

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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.

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.

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 don’t trust him.

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 “shouldn’t 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.”