According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll, 84% of voters said artificial intelligence threatens American workers, even as President Donald Trump’s administration continues to back AI development and data-center construction. The survey also found concern about job losses and support for stricter government regulation of the technology.
Voters saw AI as a greater threat to American workers than illegal immigration, competition from foreign workers or large corporations. The poll found that 60% viewed illegal immigration as a threat, 74% cited competition from foreign workers and 73% cited large corporations.
Workers and the AI buildout
A bipartisan majority supported stricter government regulation of AI, including 80% of Democrats and 61% of Republicans. Fifty-six percent backed limits on data-center construction. Support included 69% of Democrats, 55% of independents and 43% of Republicans.
Trump has repeatedly supported AI development and data-center construction, arguing they’re vital to U.S. competitiveness. He has also said the U.S. technology industry could fall behind Chinese counterparts if his administration doesn’t limit the technology’s use and development. AI safety advocates say that argument is misguided.
A White House official pointed to Trump’s new task force, saying it’s responsible for ensuring “America continues to lead the world” in AI. Asked about voters’ employment concerns, the official said, “The Trump administration’s priority is to ensure that there is a booming economy so that workers have many opportunities and experience limited volatility from any short-term disruptions.”
Daniel Kokotajlo, a former OpenAI staffer who quit in 2024 because he believed the company wasn’t behaving responsibly, said job losses and threats to human health and safety concern most Americans more than competition with China. “That’s an important concern but it’s not top of mind for most Americans, nor should it be,” he said.
Public concern and government power
The poll found that 57% of registered voters said the Trump administration hadn’t taken AI risks seriously enough or at all. A third of self-identified Republicans shared that view. Fifty-four percent said the same about Congress.
Sixty-two percent said AI could get out of control and threaten humanity’s future, about the same share as in a Reuters/Ipsos poll from August of last year. Fifty-seven percent said the U.S. government shouldn’t use AI to choose targets for military strikes, up from 49% in a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in August 2025.
The survey ran for six days and ended Monday. Researchers gathered responses online from 4,506 U.S. adults, including 3,526 registered voters. The margin of error was 2 percentage points.
Scams shift the risk to households
Cybersecurity expert Morgan Wright said skepticism, rather than detection software, offers the best defense against AI-powered financial scams. Generative AI tools can overcome language barriers, produce convincing phishing texts and create realistic voice and video clones, he said. Scammers can imitate a family member using a few seconds of audio, often taken from social media.
California mother Deborah Del Mastro said scammers cloned her daughter’s voice in a kidnapping hoax. “It’s my daughter’s voice,” she recalled during an interview on The CyberGuy Report podcast. “And she’s having a panic attack.” Del Mastro transferred more than $5,000 before realizing she’d been scammed.
“When you can fool a mother, that’s how good these things are getting,” Wright said. Scammers use “manipulation, influence and deceit,” he said, creating urgency to lower a target’s guard. Wright has trained federal, state and local law enforcement in behavioral analysis, interviewing and interrogation, including teams at the FBI and the National Security Agency.
Wright advised people who receive a suspicious call or message to pause before responding. Scammers continually find ways around updated security features, he said, leaving software detection a moving target as companies change AI models. “So, when the model changes, how effective is [detection software]? We don’t know because this stuff is moving so fast,” he said.