People say they hate AI, so why can't they stop using it? MIT Tech Review explains

MIT Tech Review AI · rss · 2026-10-05

An MIT Technology Review column unpacks a paradox: public sentiment toward AI is souring fast, yet usage keeps skyrocketing.

The hate: Pew finds more US adults now expect negative personal and societal impact from AI than positive, with the young most pessimistic; a Stanford report says over half of people worldwide feel nervous about AI products; a May Gallup poll shows 71% of US adults would oppose a local AI data center, more than the 53% opposing a new nuclear plant; an NBC poll in March found AI less popular than ICE.

The addiction: Sensor Tower puts ChatGPT at 1 billion monthly users in May, with Gemini close behind at 950 million in July; Pew says half of US adults use a chatbot, more than double the 2023 figure, and one in four do so daily; over a third of adults across all 38 OECD countries used generative AI in the past three months.

The author argues the two groups largely overlap, and what people hate is not the technology but the relentless push by the companies behind it. All 50 US states have passed or proposed AI laws — a patchwork of 2,100+ bills, a tenfold increase in three years — and open-source alternatives still leave room for consumer choice: AI's future is not as inevitable as trillion-dollar firms imply.

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