Security1 publisher3 min readPublished Updated
Gallup puts the US among three of 37 countries where negative feeling about AI outweighs positive
The Gallup and Microsoft survey covers 37 of a planned 140 countries, and the one kind of trust it measures is whether people think AI returns accurate information. Governance programs run on the other kinds.
The Watch · Security desk
What happened
- Gallup and Microsoft polled people in 37 countries on awareness of AI, use, frequency of use, expected impact and trust, in a study the researchers say will eventually cover 140 countries.
- A median of 81 percent of respondents knew AI tools exist and a median of 43 percent used them every day, a gap of 38 percentage points between awareness and daily use.
- Gallup's Pablo Diego-Rosell said the Netherlands, Canada, the UK, New Zealand, Ireland and Malta all rank near the top for worry about AI.
Compiled by The WatchSomething wrong?How this is made
Why it matters
- contradiction Adoption and positive feeling rise together at country level, yet Gallup says the direction of that relationship is unknown, so an internal rollout built on the theory that more usage lowers worry goes beyond what the data support.
- decision Using the Worried West grouping to shape regional AI policy means deciding on 26 percent of the planned country sample, with Germany and France not yet reported.
- exposure Some respondents felt positive about AI and did not trust its results. Enthusiasm in a sentiment survey is no guide to which users check output before acting on it.
Gallup measures one kind of trust: whether people believe AI provides accurate information. It does not ask whether staff think the tools are safe with company data, or private, or fair. Pablo Diego-Rosell, a senior scientist at Gallup [26], said the study measures one dimension of trust. "There is also a broader question about what trust in AI actually means. In this study, we measure one specific dimension: whether people trust AI to provide accurate information," he said [21]. "But trust in AI can also involve whether people believe it is reliable, safe, fair, transparent, protective of privacy, and likely to act in ways that serve their interests." [22]
Gallup's definition of a daily user is broad: an employed person who used AI every day for work or personal reasons, or an unemployed person who used it every day [5]. Work and personal use are counted in the same figure.
The study frames the sequence as a ladder. "AI engagement can be viewed as an adoption ladder, moving from awareness to ever having used AI and then to more frequent use," the survey said [6]. More use generally came with more trust, more positive feeling and more belief that AI would help make a better future [7], though some respondents who reported positive feelings also said they did not trust AI's results [8]. The survey's own language on that is "People may therefore see considerable potential in AI even while remaining uncertain about whether they can rely on the information it provides" [9].
Direction is the open question, and Gallup says so in both the study text and the interview. "The survey cannot establish whether greater trust leads people to use AI more often, whether experience with AI builds trust, or both. But the strength and consistency of the relationship suggest that trust and adoption are connected," the study said [11]. Diego-Rosell put it as a pair of alternatives: "Does experience with AI make people more comfortable with it, or are people who already trust AI simply more willing to use it?" [20]
Globally, most people surveyed felt good about AI and expected it to improve their country, and positive feeling rose with adoption at country level [14]. Three of the 37 countries went the other way [12], about 8 percent of the sample [29]. Besides the US, they are Egypt and Palestine [13]. Diego-Rosell offered one reading: "When people are living in environments where worry, stress or other negative emotions are already elevated, some of that broader emotional climate may shape how they react to a technology like AI," he said [23], adding that "our data do not allow us to determine how much of the response is specific to AI versus the wider circumstances people are experiencing" [24]. 404 Media noted that Israel is waging war on Palestine, settling in its territory, and using AI to pick targets to bomb in Gaza [25].
The published account reports medians across the 37 countries and no per-country daily-use rates [30]. These figures cannot settle the claim that American use keeps climbing while sentiment falls.
Coverage is 37 countries of a planned 140 [2], 26 percent of the intended sample [28]. Diego-Rosell said he has not seen results from some of the bigger European countries, Germany and France among them [16], and that worrying about AI "appears to be a uniquely Western phenomenon" [17]. Gallup calls the pattern the "Paradox of the Worried West" [18].
What to watch
- Later Gallup waves that add Germany and France. Those results test whether the worry pattern holds across Western Europe or sits in a handful of English-speaking countries.
- Any release of country-level daily-use rates. Those rates would show whether American use is rising while sentiment falls.
- Whether Gallup adds trust dimensions beyond accuracy, such as privacy and safety, in the rounds covering the remaining 103 countries.