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Artificial intelligence is everywhere now, powering song recommendations on Spotify, filling inboxes with AI-written emails, and showing up in classrooms and workplaces around the world. You may not feel like you get much say in where and how AI shows up in your life. You're not the only one.
That's the takeaway from a Pew Research Center report published Wednesday, which finds that six out of 10 Americans (61%) want more control over how AI is used in their lives. More than half (57%) say they currently have "not too much" or "no control" at all in whether AI is used in their lives. Just 13% say they feel they have "a great deal" or "quite a bit" of control.
It's becoming apparent that Americans may be receptive to AI playing some kind of role in our daily lives, but are resistant to AI involvement becoming unavoidable.
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The growing AI control gap
The numbers highlight what Pew calls an "AI control gap," or a widening sense that the choice to opt out is slipping away. AI already powers weather forecasts, financial fraud detection and drug research, areas where Americans told Pew they're comfortable seeing it play a role. But in more personal aspects of life -- relationships, spirituality and creative thinking -- people overwhelmingly want to keep AI at arm's length.
The survey shows Americans are twice as likely to rate AI's risks as "high" compared with its benefits, and 53% admit they're not confident they can tell the difference between AI-generated content and human-made work. Still, a large majority (76%) say it's "very important" to them to know the difference.
Read also: Most People Use ChatGPT for Personal Life, Not Work, According to a New OpenAI Study
Why control over AI matters to Americans
The push for more control comes as AI quietly embeds itself in consumer devices and online platforms. From Apple's latest "AI-powered" iPhones to Google search results summarized by chatbots, Americans are bumping into AI even when they don't seek it out. And unlike toggles for ad tracking or location services, tools to manage when AI is used are far less visible.
That lack of agency fuels growing skepticism over AI. For instance, half of Americans say they're more concerned than excited about AI's role in daily life, which is 13 percentage points higher than it was in 2021, when AI use was a mere fraction of what it is today.
Pew's findings echo broader anxieties surrounding the prevalence and implementation of AI tools. Lawmakers are weighing rules around transparency, safety and consent, while AI companies race to normalize AI in everything from education to health care to the devices you carry with you everywhere. But the Pew survey findings suggest that if companies want to build public trust, they'll need to give people clearer off switches and choices about when AI is adopted, so that AI use feels like a choice rather than an inevitability.
Read also: AI Lies Because It's Telling You What It Thinks You Want to Hear
