57% of US Voters Say Trump Administration and Congress Not Taking AI Risks Seriously Enough

Growing Public Demand for Federal Action on AI Risks

A new Reuters/Ipsos poll reveals mounting concern among US voters about how the federal government is handling AI risks. The six-day survey, which ended on Monday and gathered responses from 4,506 US adults including 3,526 registered voters, found that 57% of registered voters believe the Trump administration has not taken AI risks seriously enough or at all1

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. This includes a third of self-identified Republicans expressing dissatisfaction with the administration's approach2

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. Meanwhile, 54% of US voters said the same about Congress not taking AI risks seriously3

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. The poll, conducted online and nationwide, has a margin of error of 2 percentage points1

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AI as Campaign Issue Ahead of Midterm Elections

Artificial intelligence has emerged as a significant campaign issue ahead of the November 3 midterm elections when control of Congress is up for grabs3

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. The fast-advancing technology has become a matter of keen national interest amid reports of AI agents running amok and hacking into corporate computer networks, including incidents involving OpenAI's breach of Hugging Face and federal government websites2

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. Some 62% of voters in the Reuters/Ipsos poll said the technology could get out of control and risk the future of humankind, representing an existential threat to humanity—roughly the same share of voters with that view in a poll from August of last year1

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. Candidates from both parties are now addressing concerns over job security, energy costs, and public safety as the rapid expansion of AI increasingly collides with public sentiment2

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Bipartisan Support for Stricter Government Regulation of AI

The poll found overwhelming bipartisan support for AI regulation, with 80% of Democrats and 61% of Republicans saying they supported stricter government regulation on AI4

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. This represents a rare area of agreement across party lines at a time of deep political division. While high-profile leaders ranging from US Senator Bernie Sanders to Steve Bannon, a hard right ally of President Donald Trump, have called for federal action, little has come so far1

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. Congress has so far failed to agree on legislation that would set guardrails on the technology, and lawmakers are expected to be away from Washington until after the midterm elections3

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AI Viewed as Greater Threat to American Jobs Than Immigration

The Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 84% of voters saw AI as a threat to American jobs, making it a more significant concern than other hot-button issues1

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. By comparison, only 60% saw illegal immigration as a threat to American workers, while 74% viewed competition from foreign workers that way and 73% said the same of large corporations2

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. Daniel Kokotajlo, a former OpenAI staffer who quit in 2024 because he believed the company wasn't behaving responsibly, told Reuters that job displacement is a more pressing concern than economic competitiveness with China. "That's an important concern but it's not top of mind for most Americans, nor should it be," Kokotajlo said, adding that AI could cost people their jobs or threaten human health and safety3

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Trump Administration AI Approach: Voluntary Over Regulatory

The Trump administration has largely favored voluntary safeguards over sweeping federal regulations2

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. Trump has repeatedly voiced unhesitating support for AI and the construction of AI data centers, arguing they are vital to US competitiveness even as bipartisan criticism of the technology grows1

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. Last week, Trump announced that executives from six leading AI developers—Nvidia, SpaceX, OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, and Alphabet's Google—agreed to a set of voluntary safety principles, including working with independent auditors to assess whether AI systems are working as their designers intended4

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. However, the safety agreement includes no stated consequences if a company chooses not to comply3

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. In a statement to Reuters, a White House official pointed to Trump's new AI task force, which is in charge of ensuring that "America continues to lead the world" on the technology1

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Opposition to Data Center Construction and Military Applications

Many voters also oppose building the data centers that power AI, which has become a pressing issue in congressional and statewide races across the country3

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. Fifty-six percent of voters in the Reuters/Ipsos poll back limits on building data centers, including 69% of Democrats, 55% of independents and 43% of Republicans1

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. The noisy, power-hungry data centers increasingly pose a nuisance when they pop up near neighborhoods while jacking up utility bills4

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. The poll also found growing unease with military applications of AI. Some 57% of voters think the US government should not use AI to determine the target of a military strike, up from 49% in a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in August 20252

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