Don’t miss out on our latest stories. Add PCMag as a preferred source on Google.
People around the world are feeling more concerned than excited about AI’s growing presence in everyday life, and only a small fraction are all in.
The US and Italy have the most concerned citizens, with 50% feeling more concerned than excited, according to a Pew Research survey conducted in spring 2025 and published today. Most Americans (38%) are equally concerned and excited, while just 10% feel mostly excited.
The only country to have fewer citizens more excited than concerned than the US is Canada, at 9%. The most excited country is Israel (29%), followed by South Korea and Sweden (22%), and Nigeria (20%).
That’s a pretty slim showing for the excited crowd. Clearly, the majority across all countries feels some significant amount of apprehension. The study did not list those concerns, but they may include misinformation, biases, data privacy, deepfakes and misleading content, copyright protections, cybersecurity, environmental destruction, and more.
At the same time, ChatGPT usage continues to grow, with 800 million people talking to the chatbot every week, OpenAI says. It’s one of the top five most-visited websites in the world.
(Credit: Pew Research)
Survey respondents also expressed a lack of faith in the US and China’s ability to regulate AI effectively. Most people either trust their own country or the EU to do it right, likely given its proactiveness with legislation like the EU AI Act. The EU also has a history of curbing the tech industry’s power, such as when it got Apple to abandon its proprietary charging cord and adopt the more consumer-friendly USB-C.
Get Our Best Stories!
Your Daily Dose of Our Top Tech News
By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Thanks for signing up!
Your subscription has been confirmed. Keep an eye on your inbox!
Indians had the most trust in their country’s ability to regulate AI (89%), followed by Indonesians (74%), and Israelis (72%). On the other end of the spectrum, Greeks had the least trust (22%).
(Credit: Pew Research)
“Generally, people who are more enthusiastic about AI are more likely to trust their country to regulate the technology,” says Pew Research. “And in many countries, views on this question are related to party affiliation or support for the governing coalition.”
Americans were almost evenly split between trust (44%) and distrust (47%). However, the majority of Republicans and right-leaning independents had a higher confidence in the US’s ability to appropriately regulate AI (54%), compared with Democrats and Democratic Party leaners (36%).
Recommended by Our Editors
Pew also measured how familiar respondents are with AI, finding that young adults are the most aware in “virtually every country” than older generations. But Gen Zers also have significant concerns about the fate of their generation, with 40% saying they are “living through the worst period in human history.” They also feel their peers are relying too heavily on AI, according to a study by EduBirdie.
Across the board, nations with higher income are more familiar with AI than those in less wealthy economies. For example, half of adults in Japan, Germany, France, and the US say they “have heard a lot about AI,” compared with just 14% in India and 12% in Kenya.
(Credit: Pew Research)
There’s also a gender split. In more than half the countries, men were more likely to have “heard a lot about AI” than women. Women are also more likely to be “mostly concerned” about the increasing use of AI. However, OpenAI released a study in September that found more than half of ChatGPT users are women.
People who are chronically online—”use the internet almost constantly,” as Pew puts it—are also more likely than the less Internet-obsessed to be excited about the growing use of AI in everyday life.
About Our Expert
Emily Forlini
Senior Reporter
Experience
As a news and features writer at PCMag, I cover the biggest tech trends that shape the way we live and work. I specialize in on-the-ground reporting, uncovering stories from the people who are at the center of change—whether that’s the CEO of a high-valued startup or an everyday person taking on Big Tech. I also cover daily tech news and breaking stories, contextualizing them so you get the full picture.
I came to journalism from a previous career working in Big Tech on the West Coast. That experience gave me an up-close view of how software works and how business strategies shift over time. Now that I have my master’s in journalism from Northwestern University, I couple my insider knowledge and reporting chops to help answer the big question: Where is this all going?
Read Full Bio
