91% of Americans say “AI safety measures are important”… Safety before innovation

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Seol Won-tae = As anxiety about the risks of artificial intelligence (AI) models spreads globally, a majority of Americans were surveyed to support mandating independent safety standards for AI companies for their models. This demand remained true even if safety standards slowed down technological development.

According to Bloomberg News on the 1st, according to a survey of 1,202 American adults conducted by Quinnipiac University at the end of last month, 91% responded that it is "very important" (74%) or "somewhat important" (17%) that the United States establish AI system safety measures.

81% of respondents said that safety should be prioritized over the pursuit of innovation.

The results of this opinion poll came after AI industry leaders who attended a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump agreed on self-regulation on safety issues.

Americans also view AI industry giants with skepticism.

74% of those surveyed said they did not trust AI company managers, and 53% believed that AI would cause more harm than good in their daily lives.

Last July, as the sense of AI crisis grew due to the hacking of the Open AI agent's hugging face, 73% of respondents believed that future AI could pose an existential threat to humanity, and 77% responded that development should be slowed down or stopped.

“While there is considerable concern about the potential for future AI to threaten humans, many Americans are even more concerned about the potential for AI used by people to harm others,” said Brian O’Neill, associate dean of Quinnipiac University’s School of Computing and Engineering.

Opposition voices are growing despite the rapid expansion of technological infrastructure in local communities.

The perception that electricity rates have soared due to the construction of AI data centers with high power consumption has led to growing opposition. 72% of those surveyed opposed the construction of new data centers in the region, a 7 percentage point increase from last March (65%).

“Gaining community support for the physical infrastructure that supports AI may be the industry’s most pressing challenge,” said Tamila Triantoro, associate professor at Quinnipiac University’s School of Business.

The survey found that 69% of Americans said it was important to outpace China, but it was unclear how they weighed this against AI safety issues.

This national opinion poll was conducted between September 24 and 27 by Quinnipiac University, a prestigious private university in Connecticut, USA, targeting 1,202 American adults. The margin of error is ±3.5% points.