AI Regulation Gains Strong Bipartisan Support as 68% of Voters Demand Safety Reviews

Voters of both parties want tighter AI regulation, poll finds

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and President Donald Trump in Evian-les-Bains, France, on June 17.Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images An overwhelming majority of likely voters want powerful AI systems to undergo mandatory formal safety reviews before they are released to the public, according to a new survey about Americans' views on AI, going further than the existing Trump administration policy of opt-in reviews for new advanced models. The poll, conducted by Washington, D.C.-based AI Policy Institute (AIPI), a non-partisan research organization, found that Republicans were more enthusiastic about government-led safety testing for AI models than Democrats, though more than half of voters supported such a measure regardless of their political affiliation. The survey results are the latest sign of Americans' bipartisan desire for stronger AI regulations in the face of advancing AI capabilities, representing a shift from earlier findings that Republicans were more skeptical than Democrats of government intervention on AI issues. "We're currently seeing the government take a very active interest in managing the risks of AI systems and deciding what AI systems are safe enough to release," said Peter Wildeford, the director of policy at the AI Policy Network, a policy advocacy group affiliated with AIPI. "Americans want to do more on AI safety." AIPI asked 1,007 likely voters across the country to choose between a small set of response options for each question. The poll was conducted on June 11 and 12 and required participants to opt in to the project from an online research marketplace. The AIPI poll found that participants did not seek to ban AI systems if sufficient regulation was also an option. Presented with the choice of banning AI systems or requiring AI companies to implement safety measures for their most advanced systems, two-thirds of survey respondents said they preferred having AI systems with guardrails. Yet when asked whether they preferred having AI systems with no regulation or banning AI outright, voters instead strongly preferred banning AI entirely. Government oversight of AI systems has emerged as a critical policy issue over the past year. At the beginning of June, President Donald Trump signed an executive order targeting the cybersecurity capabilities of advanced AI models. The order directed federal agencies to shore up federal cyber defenses and to establish a mechanism to test new AI models for safety concerns. That mechanism has yet to be formalized or announced, and the order stipulated that any vetting would be voluntary for AI companies. Over the past month, the administration has tussled with Anthropic and OpenAI over releasing their latest models to the public. On Friday, OpenAI said it was forced to release its latest model, GPT-5.6, to a limited subset of trusted partners (instead of the wider public) because of government requests over safety concerns. The government cleared Anthropic on Friday to give a set of trusted partners access to its most powerful Mythos 5 model. AIPI's survey found participants also prioritized regulatory oversight of data centers over complete data-center bans. Forty-seven percent of poll respondents said they would allow data centers if the AI systems being developed had safety requirements and security standards, while 38% said they would ban data centers entirely. The remainder of respondents said they were unsure. The proliferation of data centers has become a hot-button political issue nationwide, increasingly serving as a proxy for Americans' overall fears about AI systems. America's data center boom now faces over 300 bans and moratoriums, according to The Information, a tech news site, while independent researchers recently found that data center opponents have blocked or delayed projects worth nearly $130 billion this year. In the AIPI survey, the researchers found that over 60% of both Republican and Democratic respondents thought the federal government -- not AI companies -- should set clear safety standards for AI systems and then evaluate AI companies' adherence to those rules. The majority of current safety guardrails for AI systems are designed and implemented by AI companies. Over 80% of respondents -- 84% of Democratic and 83% of Republican participants -- thought AI companies should not build AI systems smarter than humans until the companies can demonstrate that they can control the systems. Federal efforts to regulate AI have been stymied in recent months, as advocates of more robust regulation have clashed with the Trump administration's view that such laws could hamstring America's AI industry and quash innovation. Just over two weeks ago, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick directed leading AI company Anthropic to take its two most powerful AI systems offline because of national security concerns. Lutnick, along with other senior White House officials, including National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, worried that bad actors could use the systems to carry out powerful cyberattacks. The survey comes just days after several federal primary elections turned into a proxy battle over AI regulation. The race to replace retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., in New York's 12th Congressional District drew over $40 million, most of which came from political groups representing AI issues. Almost three-quarters of all respondents in the AIPI survey thought AI will become a more important political issue in the future. The Pew Research Center released a survey this month showing that around two-thirds of Americans said AI is advancing too quickly. As in AIPI's new poll, the Pew survey found that Republicans are now more trusting of the government's ability to regulate AI effectively, a reversal from prior years. In Pew research from 2024, 70% of voters who identified as Republicans or who leaned toward supporting Republicans said they did not have much confidence in the government's ability to regulate AI, compared with 54% of Democratic-aligned voters. In this month's poll, however, the dynamics had flipped. Seventy-four percent of Democrats said they were not confident in the government's ability to regulate AI, compared with 61% of Republicans. "I think people in the White House who have been trying to push a no-rules-whatsoever perspective are out of step with the American people on the results of the AIPI poll," said Wildeford of the AI Policy Network.

Poll finds bipartisan support for tighter AI regulation

There is bipartisan support for tighter regulation on AI, according to a new poll. In the Artificial Intelligence Policy Institute (AIPI) poll, 68 percent of respondents said that they would be in favor of the government making "a formal review process for the most advanced AI models before they can be widely released." Twenty percent in the same poll said that they were in favor of the government leaning "mostly on companies to test their own AI models," intervening "mainly after problems occur." Twelve percent were unsure about which choice they favored. Sixty-four percent of Republicans and 76 percent of Democrats backed the formal review process, with 63 percent of independents also supporting the idea. The poll also found that 15 percent of Democrats, 24 percent of Republicans and 23 percent of independents were in favor of the government leaning mostly on companies. In recent months, measures attempting to bar or rein in data center construction have gained steam at the state and local level, with Americans' opinions going south on the massive buildout of AI infrastructure in their communities. Two months ago, the Maine Legislature became the first in the nation to pass a bill stopping the development of large-scale data centers. The backlash against data centers has been increasing within the last few years, with communities anxious about the impacts of the energy-guzzling infrastructure on their cost of living and the environment. In March, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) announced the Artificial Intelligence Data Center Moratorium Act, which attempts to stop construction of AI infrastructure until lawmakers put in place measures that mandate government reviews of AI products, halt mass job displacement and restrict rises in consumer electricity prices. The AIPI poll took place from June 10 to June 11, featuring 1,007 likely voters and a margin of error of 4.2 percent.

How do Democrats, Republicans feel about AI? New poll sheds light

By Fernando Cervantes Jr., USA TODAY USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect As artificial intelligence becomes a more visible part of Americans' day-to-day lives, there is bipartisan support for tighter regulation of the technology, according to a new poll. The survey, conducted by the Washington-based AI Policy Institute (AIPI), found that 68% of respondents said they would support the government creating a "formal review process for the most advanced AI models before they can be widely released." Support for tighter government regulation was recorded among Democrats, Republicans and independents. Sixty-four percent of Republicans and 76% of Democrats said they would support the "formal review process," while 63% of independents supported the idea. The survey comes only weeks after President Donald Trump signed an executive order on June 2 asking AI developers to voluntarily submit their models to the federal government to review for potential security risks. The AIPI poll was conducted between June 10 and June 11, with 1,007 likely voters responding. The poll's margin of error was ± 4.2%. 'Strong opposition' to AI data centers Apart from AIPI's poll, other polling has shown Americans' deep disapproval of AI data centers. Gallup survey results released in May found 70% of Americans oppose the construction of data centers in their communities, with more than half expressing "strong opposition." Common concerns include massive energy and water consumption, electronic waste and noise pollution. That strong opposition has prompted local governments to pass moratoriums to keep data centers out of their communities. Among them was Monterey Park, California, which is believed to be the first city to implement a permanent ban through a ballot initiative. Voters there approved the ban on June 2. However, statewide bans have proved more elusive. Lawmakers in several states, including North Carolina, have proposed setting stricter rules for data centers. Legislation introduced to curb AI In March, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, announced the Artificial Intelligence Data Center Moratorium Act. According to a news release from Sanders, the act would stop construction of AI infrastructure to give the government time to mandate reviews of AI products. Moreover, it would also give the public 50% ownership of the largest AI companies in the United States through a sovereign wealth fund. "As a society, we can no longer sit back and allow a handful of Big Tech oligarchs to determine the future of this revolutionary technology with no democratic input," Sanders said. USA TODAY's Joey Garrison contributed to this report. Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him at [email protected] and follow him on X @fern_cerv_. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How do Democrats, Republicans feel about AI? New poll sheds light Reporting by Fernando Cervantes Jr., USA TODAY / USA TODAY USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect This story was originally published June 29, 2026 at 4:35 PM.