Young Americans lose faith in AI and the billionaire AI leaders promoting it

Young people increasingly don't trust AI - or the billionaires that keep telling us we should all love AI, survey finds

* Study finds young people are increasingly pessimistic about AI * Nearly half say AI will have a negative impact on their careers * They're also suspicious of leading AI figures and executives Younger Americans are becoming increasingly distrustful not only of AI, but also the executives and evangelists who promote the technology, a new study has claimed. A CNBC/Generation Labs survey of 1,088 Americans between the ages of 18 and 34 found the vast majority saying they distrusted the leaders of major companies investing in AI, including the likes of Elon Musk, Sam Altman and Mark Zuckerberg. The reasons behind this distrust were fairly clear to spot - with nearly half (45%) of respondents saying AI would have a negative impact on their careers, compared to just 10% who believed the technology will help them. AI villains The study covered a range of wider concerns young people may have around the future, with worries around the economy and jobs among the biggest pressures, however the threat of AI was seemingly ever-present, with the technology increasingly influencing all areas of everyday life. This expands to the figures becoming the poster children for AI - respondents were given nine key people in the AI industry and asked whether they trusted each of them to act responsibly on AI moving forward. Perhaps unsurprisingly, every figure was marked negatively - with Palantir CEO Alex Karp scoring the worst, as 81% of respondents saying they do not trust him. Karp was followed by Palantir Chairman Peter Thiel (79%), Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai (75%) and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei (75%). Other notable figures, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk all scored about the same 70% figure - but there was 'better' news for Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who recorded the "highest" score, with just 65% of respondents saying they don't trust him. Looking at technology's place in the wider world, 40% of Americans said they believed "the federal government" should establish rules for AI, with just over a third (36%) believing "an independent expert body" should do so - and just 8% said they think AI "shouldn't be regulated." Keeping with the spirit of protests across the nation, nearly two-thirds (60%) of Americans believed data center construction "must be slowed," with just 15% saying they wanted to be "speeding it up." Looking forward, the when asked about how they would rate the American economy, nearly 80% said they had a negative sentiment - and when asked about the future of the economy, 50% believed it "will get worse," compared with just 22% who said it "will get better." Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds.

Majority of young Americans distrust billionaire AI leaders

Around seven in 10 young Americans distrust some of the most prominent billionaire leaders behind the AI boom, while 45% believe the technology will hurt their careers. A poll of 1,088 Americans aged 18 to 34 conducted by CNBC and Generation Lab found that 45% expected AI to negatively affect their careers, compared with just 10% who believed it would help them, Forbes reported. Distrust was widespread toward executives leading companies at the center of the AI boom. Palantir CEO Alex Karp had the highest distrust level at 81%, followed by the company's chairman Peter Thiel at 79%, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei at 76% and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai at 74%. Around 70% said they distrusted Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was viewed most favorably among the executives surveyed, although 65% still said they distrusted him, compared with 35% who trusted him. The skepticism extended to the infrastructure powering AI. About 60% of respondents said construction of data centers should be slowed, while 15% wanted development accelerated.The findings come as AI is generating enormous fortunes for technology executives and startup founders. Forbes estimated Musk's fortune at nearly $870 billion as of Aug. 13, making him the world's richest person. Zuckerberg ranked sixth with about $204.3 billion, while Huang was eighth with $194.5 billion. Altman was worth an estimated $3.3 billion. Meanwhile, the AI boom has created a new generation of billionaires as investors pour money into startups. The New York Times reported in December that founders of companies including Scale AI, Cursor, Perplexity, Mercor, Figure AI, Safe Superintelligence and Harvey had reached billionaire status on paper as valuations of their companies soared. Many accumulated their fortunes remarkably quickly, with most of the new AI billionaires founding their companies within a few years of OpenAI's release of ChatGPT in late 2022. The distrust toward AI leaders comes amid broader public unease about the technology and the power of major technology companies. A Pew Research Center analysis published in March found that half of U.S. adults were more concerned than excited about the growing use of AI in daily life, compared with just 10% who were more excited than concerned. A YouGov survey of around 1,200 U.S. adults commissioned by the Little Tech Association found that 71% believed large technology companies and their CEOs had too much power, while just 2% believed they had too little, Axios reported in July. The skepticism toward AI also comes amid wider economic anxiety among young Americans. In the CNBC/Generation Lab poll, 45% described the U.S. economy as "bad," another 27% called it "very bad," and 6% said it "couldn't be worse.