{"id":582051,"date":"2026-04-13T17:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T17:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/582051\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T17:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T17:56:10","slug":"stanford-study-ai-experts-are-optimistic-about-ai-the-rest-of-us-not-so-much","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/582051\/","title":{"rendered":"Stanford Study: AI Experts Are Optimistic About AI. The Rest of Us \u2026 Not So Much"},"content":{"rendered":"

The survey is considered a must-read for policymakers in academia, business and politics. But as transparency from top AI developers declines, Sajadieh acknowledged it\u2019s harder to know what needs to be addressed, especially with regulation or legislation, \u201cfor us to understand what risks we want to mitigate first as a society.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEnthusiasm and evangelism around AI have relegated considerations about how to responsibly manage its applications and use cases to the back burner,\u201d Stephen Baiter, executive director of the East Bay Economic Development Alliance, wrote KQED.<\/p>\n

He observed that jobs tied to the physical world, especially in areas like construction, health care<\/a>, and public safety, seem to be at the least risk of disruption. But he has concerns beyond AI\u2019s immediate impacts on labor<\/a> markets. \u201cThere has been strong deference toward delaying or ignoring sensitive core human rights and quality of life issues<\/a> related to individual\/personal privacy, safety, and security.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other critics of AI go further. \u201cThe ones who don\u2019t see eye to eye with the leading experts and the general public are the companies themselves, which are engaged in a race to replace humans as quickly as possible,\u201d e-mailed Chase Hardin, spokesman for the non-profit The Future of Life Institute, which is dedicated to reducing global catastrophic and existential risks from transformative technologies.<\/p>\n

Hardin said that public polling is unambiguously negative about the risks of AI. \u201cWe can argue about why that is, but the public is deeply skeptical<\/a> of the companies themselves, the technology, and it is incredibly anxious about what it means for their children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Top takeaways of the AI Index Report include:<\/p>\n

1. AI experts and the public have very different perspectives on the technology\u2019s future. Assessing AI\u2019s impact on jobs, 73% of U.S. AI experts said the technology\u2019s impacts on jobs are positive, compared with only 23% of the public, a 50 percentage-point gap. Similar divides emerge regarding the economy and medical care.<\/p>\n

Globally, trust in governments to regulate AI varies. Among surveyed countries, the United States reported the lowest level of trust in its own government to regulate AI, at 31%. Globally, the EU is trusted more than the United States or China to regulate AI effectively.<\/p>\n

2. AI capability is accelerating and reaching more people than ever. Private companies built more than 9 in 10 of the world\u2019s most powerful AI models in 2025, and some of those models are now beating human experts on PhD-level science and advanced math exams.<\/p>\n

3. Productivity gains from AI are appearing in many of the same fields where entry-level employment is starting to decline. Studies show productivity gains of 14% to 26% in customer support and software development, with weaker or negative effects in tasks requiring more judgment.<\/p>\n

In software development, where AI\u2019s measured productivity gains are clearest, U.S. developers ages 22 to 25 saw employment fall nearly 20% from 2024, even as the headcount for older developers continues to grow.<\/p>\n

4. Students are using AI, but their educational institutions are still playing catch-up. Four out of five U.S. high school and college students now use AI for schoolwork<\/a>, but only half of middle and high schools have AI policies in place, and just 6% of teachers say those policies are clear.<\/p>\n

\"\"A review of more than 500 clinical AI studies found nearly half relied on exam-style questions instead of real patient data, while just 5% used actual clinical data. (LPETTET via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

5. AI is transforming clinical health care, but rigorous evidence remains limited. AI tools that automatically generate clinical notes from patient visits saw substantial adoption in 2025. Across multiple hospital systems, physicians reported up to 83% less time spent writing notes and significant reductions in burnout.<\/p>\n

Beyond certain tools, however, the evidence base for clinical AI remains thin. A review of more than 500 clinical AI studies found that nearly half relied on exam-style questions rather than real patient data, with only 5% using real clinical data.<\/p>\n

6. AI\u2019s environmental footprint is expanding alongside its capabilities. Training a single AI model last year generated roughly as much carbon as 16,000 round-trip flights from San Francisco to New York. Researchers estimate that running just one widely-used AI model, GPT-4o, may consume enough water annually to meet the drinking needs of every person in Los Angeles and San Francisco combined.<\/p>\n

7. The United States leads the world in AI investment, but its ability to attract global talent is declining. U.S. private AI investment reached $285.9 billion in 2025, more than 23 times the $12.4 billion invested in China \u2014 though looking at just private investment figures likely understates China\u2019s total AI spending, given its government guidance funds.<\/p>\n

The U.S. also led in entrepreneurial activity with 1,953 newly funded AI companies in 2025, more than 10 times the next closest country, which was the U.K. However, the number of AI researchers and developers moving to the U.S. has dropped 89% since 2017, with an 80% decline in the last year alone.<\/p>\n

8. The U.S.-China AI model performance gap has effectively closed. U.S. and Chinese models have traded the lead multiple times since early 2025.<\/p>\n

The U.S. still builds more of the world\u2019s most powerful AI models, but China is publishing more research, filing more patents, and installing more robots in its factories. South Korea stands out for its innovation density, leading the world in AI patents per capita.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The survey is considered a must-read for policymakers in academia, business and politics. But as transparency from top…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":582052,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-582051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582051","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=582051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/582052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}