Only 16 Percent of Americans Think AI Will Have a Positive Impact on Society • Hacker News Board

Re: Only 16 Percent of Americans Think AI Will Have a Positive Impact on Society

#211

Post by vanuatu » Wed, Jun 17, 2026, 6:43 PM UTC

ori_b wrote: post #176

vanuatu wrote: post #91

It's interesting that many developing and Asian countries have a more positive view of AI: https://www.politico.com/news/2026/06/15/people-around-the-w... How much of this is due to AI vs. the government and corporate structures in society? (Saw elsewhere that Chinese people were also much more optimistic)

https://www.npr.org/2026/05/01/nx-s1-5807131/tech-worker-chi...

an article on one person? cmon

it seems like Chinese people have much more faith in their govt than Western countries, and subsequently trust them more in distributing the benefits of AI (in aggregate ofc)

Re: Only 16 Percent of Americans Think AI Will Have a Positive Impact on Society

#212

Post by vanuatu » Wed, Jun 17, 2026, 6:44 PM UTC

zuzululu wrote: post #127

vanuatu wrote: post #91

It's interesting that many developing and Asian countries have a more positive view of AI: https://www.politico.com/news/2026/06/15/people-around-the-w... How much of this is due to AI vs. the government and corporate structures in society? (Saw elsewhere that Chinese people were also much more optimistic)

probably because none of these polls can be trusted or accurate representation

but we trust the stat that 16 pct of americans have a positive view?

Re: Only 16 Percent of Americans Think AI Will Have a Positive Impact on Society

#213

Post by hk__2 » Wed, Jun 17, 2026, 6:44 PM UTC

atleastoptimal wrote: post #164

cryo32 wrote: post #2

The pushback I see everywhere outside of tech suggests the tech industry vastly overestimated the interest. The tech industry doesn't speak for the entire planet as much as it likes to think it does.

They didn't overestimate the interest. ChatGPT is extremely popular and notable. >The tech industry doesn't speak for the entire planet Of course they don't, but they are still allowed to make a product, and pivot if there's no consumer demand. However there is huge consumer and business demand for AI so they are justified in making the investments they are.

> ChatGPT is extremely popular

Citation needed. Most people use it once a while but not daily; they tried it once and played a bit with it but then forgot about it because it’s not clear what they should use it for.

Re: Only 16 Percent of Americans Think AI Will Have a Positive Impact on Society

#214

Post by autoexec » Wed, Jun 17, 2026, 6:44 PM UTC

jondlm wrote: post #94

everdrive wrote: post #35

It's no surprise. The wild tech optimism of the 1990s and 2000s has completely fallen apart as time and time again tech companies have proved to be some of the most hostile actors in most American's lives. Perhaps edged out only by things such as actual violent crime and partisan hatred. (which itself, of course, is stoked to the absolute maximum in part due to technology trends in the past 15 years or so) The loneli…

This... this... this! This resonates soooo deeply with me. The wild thing is that these tech "systems" (aka companies) are made up of ostensibly good people. It's often impossible to look at individual people and say, "they're the cause of this damage." I believe that some form of evil (this word feel inadequate) emerges amidst these large systems that is incredibly hard to pinpoint. It's why dissension is so fucking…

> The wild thing is that these tech "systems" (aka companies) are made up of ostensibly good people.

I don't think that's the case. The people running these companies certainly aren't good people and everyone else in any position of power is either happy to hurt anyone and anything in exchange for a paycheck, or they're willing to take the money and turn a blind eye to the things they know are wrong. It's difficult to know where people stop being complicit. The amazon warehouse employee who is forced to piss in bottles or wear diapers to keep their job isn't really the problem, and I'm sure many of them hate the company they work for, but the company only works because of their efforts.

Re: Only 16 Percent of Americans Think AI Will Have a Positive Impact on Society

#215

Post by Quarrelsome » Wed, Jun 17, 2026, 6:44 PM UTC

slg wrote: post #158

svara wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm legit pretty excited about applying AI to accelerate biological and medical discovery. It's already happening right now, still in relatively mundane ways, but there's so much to do.

How much of American society will get to share in the benefits of those new biological and medical discoveries when we don't have any health insurance because we lost our jobs to AI?

most of the big players are advertising giants. How is advertising worth anything if people don't have money to buy goods and services?

Re: Only 16 Percent of Americans Think AI Will Have a Positive Impact on Society

#216

Post by vrganj » Wed, Jun 17, 2026, 6:45 PM UTC

ctoth wrote: post #113

slg wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The only hope we have is that they're wrong, and their power to change things will be minimal. What even is the optimistic outcome if they are right? What are we all working towards? Like do people think that these AI companies will create some superintelligence, suck up all the financial benefits of that, and then just decide to share it with the rest of us out of kindness? Because I legitimately can't see a realis…

What are jobs for? Should we have them? Should they be mandatory? What does it mean to have to work to eat, is this a good setup? Does everyone have to work? Should they?

No. But capitalism requires them. I'm down to end capitalism, but maybe we should figure that out before we destroy the thing that kinda-sorta made it work?

Re: Only 16 Percent of Americans Think AI Will Have a Positive Impact on Society

#217

Post by vitaflo » Wed, Jun 17, 2026, 6:45 PM UTC

jchw wrote: post #124

everdrive wrote: post #35

It's no surprise. The wild tech optimism of the 1990s and 2000s has completely fallen apart as time and time again tech companies have proved to be some of the most hostile actors in most American's lives. Perhaps edged out only by things such as actual violent crime and partisan hatred. (which itself, of course, is stoked to the absolute maximum in part due to technology trends in the past 15 years or so) The loneli…

> And I don't mean that I went down any rabbit holes -- rather common culture was hollowed out, friends were distracted, friends fell down their own extremist rabbit holes. Yeah... It's actually not so hard for me to just not take part in social media. The big struggle is that what I'd like to leave more than anything is a world born of its influence . The small percentage of people who are willing to go outward to p…

It’s like trying to give up smoking when all your friends still smoke. Even if you do give it up you either also give up your friends or still reek of cigarettes.

Re: Only 16 Percent of Americans Think AI Will Have a Positive Impact on Society

#218

Post by cryo32 » Wed, Jun 17, 2026, 6:45 PM UTC

CamperBob2 wrote: post #201

cryo32 wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not quite. They don't operate like that. It is not ok to lobby and manipulate governments for fiscal policy changes to write off the costs and risks on the general public. We MUST be entirely insulated from their failure as society. If they can't raise the capital for the product then they should fail quietly and insignificantly which is not what is going to happen at the moment.

It is not ok to lobby and manipulate governments for fiscal policy changes to write off the costs and risks on the general public. Right now they have to lobby and manipulate the government just to keep from being shut down on a mad king's whim. A mad king elected and re-elected by the same morons who now demand a say in how AI is built and used. No, thanks. Government is not the solution. Government is the problem.…

They literally helped create the situation they are in.

No sympathy!

Re: Only 16 Percent of Americans Think AI Will Have a Positive Impact on Society

#219

Post by autoexec » Wed, Jun 17, 2026, 6:45 PM UTC

sylos wrote: post #196

jms703 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> tech companies have proved to be some of the most hostile actors in most American's lives This. Many of us are cogs in these machines doing the harm...to ourselves and others around us. The thing is, these companies can't exist without employees. But employees need the companies for money to pay the other companies.

We are rapidly reaching a point where companies will exist without human employees, there'll just be the owners and an ai workforce.

Who is going to buy what they're selling? More AI?

Re: Only 16 Percent of Americans Think AI Will Have a Positive Impact on Society

#220

Post by cjfd » Wed, Jun 17, 2026, 6:45 PM UTC

cjfd wrote: post #207

hparadiz wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People just forget the before times. No one wants to go back to printing out driving directions or emailing photos. We take all these things for granted now but I am 100 certain the technology we have now has saved hundreds of millions of lives through downstream butterfly effects.

I am not so sure. The world of printing out driving directions or emailing photos sounds a lot more calm. Also, simply quite enjoyable. The current world is cramming too many events in too little time, it seems. Stress is quite bad for health so I am not so sure about these hundreds of millions of lives saved. It may also have costed quite a few.

By the way, I am old enough to remember that world. When I was young, people had fat books with maps of most large and medium size places in the country.