55% of Americans think AI will make society worse, only 10% use it daily
NinaDSchick · x · 2026-08-21
The inaugural HAPI (Human AI Perception Index) poll focuses on America, discussed by Nina Schick with Nira Data CEO Nico Jaspers, revealing a huge gap between industry narrative and public perception:
- 48% of Americans view AI negatively, with 29% "very negative"; positives are roughly half of negatives, and 28% are undecided.
- 55% believe AI will make society worse over the next ten years—the "abundance" narrative clearly hasn't landed.
- AI penetration is low: only 10% use it daily; most Americans neither use AI nor find it useful. Even with Anthropic's $70bn annualized run rate (up from $10bn last year), talk of token-maxxing and frontier safety remains a tiny bubble.
- Conclusion: in the battle for hearts and minds as we manufacture intelligence, there is all to play for.
Related event: First HAPI Poll: Americans Deeply Distrust AI Developers(11 posts)→
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