{"id":500106,"date":"2026-10-18T12:10:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T12:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/500106\/"},"modified":"2026-10-18T12:10:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T12:10:13","slug":"ai-poll-bay-area-techies-more-optimistic-about-ai-than-others-in-region","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/500106\/","title":{"rendered":"AI poll: Bay Area techies more optimistic about AI than others in region"},"content":{"rendered":"

Silicon Valley companies may be going all in on artificial intelligence, but Bay Area residents are broadly concerned about the technology \u2013 including many of the tech workers riding the wave.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s according to a poll of Bay Area locals this summer by the Mercury News and Joint Venture Silicon Valley, a nonprofit think tank. Only 28% of respondents from around the region said they expect AI to have a positive impact on their own lives over the next two decades. Even fewer \u2013 18% \u2013 said the technology will have a positive impact on society in that time.<\/p>\n

A slim majority of those in households with at least one member working in tech, 52%, said they expect AI to impact them positively in the decades to come.<\/p>\n

\"ResultsThe vast majority of techies surveyed were concerned that AI would widen inequality and threaten jobs. Incomes have already diverged in Silicon Valley faster than the national rate, eroding the region\u2019s middle class.<\/a><\/p>\n

Aubrey Rainer, a Santa Clara resident and program manager at a major tech company he declined to name, said he\u2019s an \u201cAI skeptic\u201d who uses artificial intelligence products only a few times a week. Last year, for instance, he said he used AI to shop for furniture when Google searches returned an unhelpful mass of recommendations.<\/p>\n

But he questioned the ability of the technology to transform people\u2019s lives and its long-term impacts on the Bay Area. Like most other tech employees in the survey, he expects AI to contribute to the widening inequality in the region, even as it creates business opportunities for those in the industry.<\/p>\n

\"AttendeesAttendees wait in line in front of a display showcasing \u201cAgentforce,\u201d Salesforce\u2019s new tool for autonomous AI agents, during the Dreamforce conference in San Francisco in 2024. (Dai Sugano\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt does not benefit everyone equally \u2013 unequivocally,\u201d Rainer said. \u201cIt\u2019s brought money in. That money is not going to be distributed equally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russell Hancock, president of Joint Venture Silicon Valley, said tech workers are increasingly concerned about the impact of their products in the artificial intelligence era.<\/p>\n

AI researcher Jacob Coxon resigned from San Francisco-based Anthropic last month and criticized top AI companies for \u201cracing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives.\u201d In August, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said AI executives won\u2019t publicly admit how worried they are. Hancock calls those vocal skeptics \u201cJeremiahs,\u201d after the Biblical prophet who warned of the destruction of Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

\"FormerFormer Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon testifies during a New York City Council Committee hearing on the risks and regulation of artificial intelligence at City Hall on October 5, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Adam Gray\/Getty Images)\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTech is split,\u201d he said of the survey results. \u201cHalf are deeply fearful.\u201d<\/p>\n

The online poll from August 5th to 18th surveyed 1,801 adults in the Bay Area. Surveys were completed in English, Spanish, Vietnamese and Chinese, and the margin of error was plus or minus 2.6%.<\/p>\n

Of the more than 1,800 respondents, 446 identified themselves as tech employees or said someone in their household worked in tech.<\/p>\n

The survey period was just weeks after revelations that OpenAI\u2019s system had gone rogue, hacking into another company, the AI startup Hugging Face. Since then, OpenAI, Anthropic and Google have said models hacked or attempted to hack into other organizations and government websites.<\/p>\n

\"Co-founderCo-founder and CEO of Anthropic Dario Amodei looks on as US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson speaks to the press after a meeting with technology executives about artificial intelligence at the White House in Washington, DC, on September 29, 2026. The gathering comes quickly after tech giant OpenAI’s cancellation of the release of its newest model due to safety concerns, and a series of revelations that the technology had gone rogue. (Photo by Kent NISHIMURA \/ AFP via Getty Images)\u00a0<\/p>\n

The incidents fueled national calls for guardrails on the fast-evolving technology. President Donald Trump has said he opposes international efforts to regulate AI development. He convened technology executives this fall, who pledged to agree to independent audits of their products.<\/p>\n

\"ResultsIn California, lawmakers responded with a slew of regulations signed into law in September and October by Gov. Gavin Newsom \u2013 such as barring employers from using AI to hire or fire employees and putting guardrails on the widespread use of AI tools in medicine.<\/p>\n

Another worry for Bay Area residents this year is that AI will make fewer jobs available for young people \u2014 a concern expressed by 84% of survey respondents.<\/p>\n

After graduating from art school, Summer Van Tassell, 24, said she gravitated toward a career that would be harder for employers to automate with artificial intelligence. She settled on the art and craft of making perfumes.<\/p>\n

\"Summer<\/p>\n

Summer Van Tassell stands at her home in San Jose, Calif., on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. Summer Van Tassell got into the perfume industry because she wants to work in a field that is harder to automate. (Shae Hammond\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

\"Bottles<\/p>\n

Bottles of perfume Summer Van Tassel\u2019s home in San Jose, Calif., on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (Shae Hammond\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

\"Summer<\/p>\n

Summer Van Tassell bottles perfume at home in San Jose, Calif., on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (Shae Hammond\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 3<\/p>\n

Summer Van Tassell stands at her home in San Jose, Calif., on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. Summer Van Tassell got into the perfume industry because she wants to work in a field that is harder to automate. (Shae Hammond\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n

From her family home in San Jose, Van Tassell commutes to San Francisco\u2019s Mission District for work at Ministry of Scent, a storefront purveyor of perfumes and fragrances. She also makes her own at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cUntil AI can develop its own olfactory system, I\u2019m not too worried about it \u2013 knock on wood,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Still, she said her work duties aren\u2019t totally safe. Inventory tasks, including sending and stocking products, could conceivably be performed by a robot, she said. And in a previous job, Van Tassell said she was pressured by an employer in the wellness industry to use generative AI tools for marketing materials. The results looked \u201chorrible,\u201d she said, and she is concerned about the environmental toll of data centers. She quit that position.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think AI is vastly changing what expectations for marketing are,\u201d she said, \u201cand putting unfair pressure on those trying to make it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Silicon Valley companies may be going all in on artificial intelligence, but Bay Area residents are broadly concerned…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500107,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[2007,193906,193905,193904,32137,2080,184,193902,8111,88,90,89,2280,995,4377,193907,3579,193903],"class_list":["post-500106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-ai","tag-ai-inequality","tag-ai-job-loss","tag-ai-public-perception","tag-approve","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-bay-area","tag-distrust","tag-poll","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-silicon-valley","tag-tech","tag-tech-industry","tag-tech-industry-sentiment","tag-tech-news","tag-tech-workers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}