People really hate artificial intelligence, according to the latest NBC poll.
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.
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 approval rating is -19. In fact, the only topics viewed more negatively than AI were Iran and the Democratic Party.
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.
Experts have argued that widespread AI adoption in the business world will bring about a white-collar unemployment catastrophe. Some say AI is already impacting 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.
AI addiction 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 studies linking increased reliance on AI with less cognitive ability. AI chatbots have also been repeatedly accused of inciting violence and promoting self-harm, and numerous grieving families are suing major chatbot providers like OpenAI and Character.AI.
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 increased fatality in war zones around the world. Calls for a boycott have increased as Palantir signed agreements to supply the AI technology aiding the massive anti-immigrant crackdown led by ICE, and OpenAI has stood firmly behind its controversial decision to lease its technology to the Pentagon.
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 quadrupled in 2025 due to local resistance. In response, a growing number of states and other localities have begun to consider implementing moratoriums on new AI data centers.
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.
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. Big tech is spending exorbitant amounts of money to back politically aligned candidates and undermine the AI hawks running for election in November 2026, while said candidates are making AI a core issue in their campaigns.
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 both sides of the aisle. In the NBC poll, the majority of voters surveyed said that neither party is adequately dealing with the threat of artificial intelligence.
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