AI anxiety is sweeping the globe — and cutting across party lines: poll

The freakout over AI that started in Silicon Valley and led to growing American calls to pause development has swept Western countries.

A new POLITICO Poll finds that pluralities of adults in the US, Canada, and Europe want to pause AI development regardless of their political leanings — and most believe there's a real risk the technology could destroy humanity.

Pluralities of respondents in several countries say it's okay for their country to fall behind others in the development of AI if it means being more responsible and secure when advancing it. And they're more likely to expect AI will destroy jobs rather than create them.

The results from the poll, conducted by independent polling firm Public First, illustrate the sheer magnitude of how AI fears are spreading as some industry leaders warn the technology's advancement could have potentially grave consequences. They show people's preference for caution, even at the risk of forfeiting what could be revolutionary advancements or their country falling behind in the broader AI race.

And for governments, the results offer a stark warning of the political backlash they may face if they don't take steps to rein in the technology, as leaders from US President Donald Trump to UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham scramble their responses.

Across six countries — the US, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, and Germany — roughly half of adults surveyed said AI is good enough now, so they supported a pause on further development to reduce risks, rather than continuing development for added benefits. That sentiment was highest in the UK at 51% and lowest in Germany at 45%.

Meanwhile, just 30% to 40% of adults in each country favored continued development to bring about "significant benefits."

An even greater share of adults — more than half in every country surveyed and up to almost two-thirds in the US, France, the UK, and Canada — said there was at least a "moderate" risk that the technology could "destroy humanity."

The skepticism around AI could impact Europe's ability to keep up in the global competition: The European Union, which has taken a cautionary approach by adopting the world's first AI regulation in 2024, hosts almost no providers of frontier AI models, with French Mistral as the most worthy contender.

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The bloc's highest official, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, leaned into the calls for a pause, saying during her yearly address last week that "if the people developing the technology are clear, then we should be too." She's invited the main AI labs to talk about how the EU could "support" industry efforts to pace the frontier.

But the recent AI warnings have put European policymakers in a tough spot, as the EU spent most of last year focusing on catching up in the race by preparing to invest billions in compute capacity and trying to boost low AI adoption rates.