{"id":514565,"date":"2026-03-10T07:21:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T07:21:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/514565\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T07:21:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T07:21:18","slug":"people-hate-ai-even-more-than-they-hate-ice-poll-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/514565\/","title":{"rendered":"People Hate AI Even More Than They Hate ICE, Poll Finds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>People really hate artificial intelligence, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/pos.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/260072-NBC-March-2026-Poll-03-08-2026-Release.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">latest NBC poll.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>NBC surveyed a group of registered voters and found that the concept of artificial intelligence was so unpopular that 46% of respondents said they hold negative feelings towards the concept, and only 26% reported positive connotations, while 27% were neutral.<\/p>\n<p>Even the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, which has been the subject of nationwide protests spanning months, was viewed more favorably, as was President Donald Trump, whose current net <a href=\"https:\/\/www.economist.com\/interactive\/trump-approval-tracker\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">approval rating is -19<\/a>.\u00a0 In fact, the only topics viewed more negatively than AI were Iran and the Democratic Party.<\/p>\n<p>The risks that come with artificial intelligence proliferation have been a major topic of public discussion for the past year as the technology further entrenches itself in modern society.<\/p>\n<p>Experts have argued that widespread AI adoption in the business world will bring about a white-collar unemployment <a href=\"https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/an-ai-thought-experiment-on-substack-is-sending-the-stock-market-spiraling-2000725601\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">catastrophe<\/a>. Some say AI is <a href=\"https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/ai-is-starting-to-show-an-impact-in-early-career-jobs-irish-government-says-2000723436\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">already impacting<\/a> the labor market negatively, with a clear hit suffered by early-career workers in vulnerable sectors, even though the actual returns on productivity are still highly contested.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/i-went-on-a-date-with-an-ai-chatbot-heres-how-it-went-2000721484\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">AI addiction<\/a> has quickly become a phrase we are all too familiar with, despite repeated warnings against the mental health concerns that come with an overreliance on chatbots and numerous <a href=\"https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/multiple-studies-now-suggest-that-ai-will-make-us-morons-2000620811\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">studies<\/a> linking increased reliance on AI with less cognitive ability. AI chatbots have also been repeatedly accused of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/03\/09\/google-gemini-chatbot-lawsuit-congress-regulation\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">inciting violence<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/openai-suicide-safety-issues-adam-raine-2000649307\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">promoting self-harm<\/a>, and numerous grieving families are suing major chatbot providers like <a href=\"https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/openai-is-having-a-mental-health-crisis-2000690751\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">OpenAI<\/a> and Character.AI.<\/p>\n<p>The complicity of AI companies in widely unpopular government actions worldwide has also contributed to the bad reputation AI is building for itself. AI has turbocharged surveillance efforts and <a href=\"https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/the-destruction-in-gaza-is-what-the-future-of-ai-warfare-looks-like-2000669559\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">increased fatality in war zones<\/a> around the world. Calls for a <a href=\"https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/anti-ice-protesters-have-started-a-month-long-tech-and-ai-boycott-heres-how-it-works-2000716458\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">boycott<\/a> have increased as <a href=\"https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/palantir-touts-2-billion-in-revenue-from-aiding-trump-administrations-unusual-operations-2000717022\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Palantir<\/a> signed agreements to supply the AI technology aiding the massive anti-immigrant crackdown led by <a href=\"https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/ai-tool-reportedly-sent-ice-recruits-into-the-field-without-proper-training-2000710651\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ICE<\/a>, and OpenAI has stood firmly behind its controversial decision to <a href=\"https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/openai-leadership-defends-deal-with-pentagon-as-employees-wait-in-limbo-2000728310\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">lease its technology to the Pentagon<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Also attracting controversy is the intense energy demand posed by increased AI usage. The United States is in the midst of an unprecedented data center buildout, but the locals living near these centers have repeatedly complained about water shortages, rising utility bills, and worsening air quality. People are so fed up that data center project cancellations <a href=\"https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/data-center-project-cancellations-quadrupled-in-2025-as-locals-fight-back-2000709669\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">quadrupled<\/a> in 2025 due to local resistance. In response, a growing number of states and other localities have begun to consider implementing <a href=\"https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/denver-announces-data-center-moratorium-as-opposition-picks-up-steam-around-the-country-2000726129\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">moratoriums<\/a> on new AI data centers.<\/p>\n<p>But there is some cognitive dissonance among the general public. Fifty-seven percent of the respondents to the survey said that the risks of AI outweigh the benefits. Despite that, the respondents who admit to using AI platforms like ChatGPT rose from 48% in December 2025 to 56% in March.<\/p>\n<p>The poll comes as artificial intelligence has become a major battleground in the upcoming midterm elections. Despite the considerable real estate that AI holds in political discourse, the technology is still incredibly underregulated, and a lot of the major names in the industry would like it to stay that way. <a href=\"https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/theres-an-ai-industry-civil-war-brewing-in-d-c-2000692245\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Big tech<\/a> is spending exorbitant amounts of money to back politically aligned candidates and undermine the <a href=\"https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/move-over-crypto-bros-the-ai-pacs-are-here-to-buy-the-next-election-2000687144\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">AI hawks<\/a> running for election in November 2026, while said candidates are making AI <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/03\/07\/us\/politics\/ai-crypto-money-midterms-congress.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a core issue in their campaigns.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Even though the Trump-led Republican Party has been very protective of the AI industry and sees it as crucial to national security, AI critics and champions have come from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/03\/06\/white-house-red-state-ai-laws-scrutiny\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">both sides of the aisle<\/a>. In the NBC poll, the majority of voters surveyed said that neither party is adequately dealing with the threat of artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People really hate artificial intelligence, according to the latest NBC poll.\u00a0 NBC surveyed a group of registered voters&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":514566,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[132189,182,181,507,7258,74],"class_list":["post-514565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-2026-election","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-data-centers","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=514565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/514566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}