A recent Axios Harris 100 poll reveals a strong public preference for a cautious approach to artificial intelligence development, with 77% of Americans wanting companies to prioritize getting AI right over rushing breakthroughs. This sentiment stands in stark contrast to the prevailing "AI race" narrative pushed by tech leaders, investors, and nations.
Public vs. Industry Perspectives
While only 23% of Americans favor rapid AI development even at the risk of mistakes, the tech industry, led by companies like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic, is intensely focused on accelerating toward artificial general intelligence (AGI). This drive is fueled by a belief that they are in a race against each other to build superior models, a race for companies to integrate AI into various industries, and a global race for AI dominance between nations like the U.S. and China.
Generational Divide (and Reunion)
The desire for slower AI development is consistent across generations, though with varying margins:
- 91% of boomers and 77% of Gen X advocate for a more deliberate pace.
- This number dips to 63% for millennials.
- Interestingly, it rises again to 74% for Gen Z, the youngest and most "digital native" demographic.
Why the Public's Hesitation?
Despite the substantial investment and development spurred by the "AI race," the public remains largely unconvinced by the urgency. For many, AI is still seen as a "solution in search of a problem." There's also skepticism about AI's transformative promises, with concerns that it will eliminate jobs and propagate misinformation.
The public's cautious stance may stem from past experiences with new technologies. Lessons learned from the rapid, business-model-driven adoption of smartphones and social media suggest that early mistakes in platform development can become deeply entrenched and almost impossible to fix later. This time, many seem to believe that a slower, more deliberate approach is the only way to avoid locking in choices that could lead to future regrets.
Advanced robots don't necessarily need to look like C3PO from "Star Wars" or George Jetson's maid Rosie, despite all the hype over humanoids from Wall Street and Big Tech.
- In fact, some of the biggest skeptics about human-shaped robots come from within the robotics industry itself.
Robots are meant to take over dirty, dangerous and dull tasks — not to replace humans, who are still the most sophisticated machines of all.
Morgan Stanley believes there's a $4.7 trillion market for humanoids like Tesla's Optimus over the next 25 years — most of them in industrial settings, but also as companions or housekeepers for the wealthy.
The most productive — and profitable — bots are the ones that can do single tasks cheaply and efficiently.
- "If you look at where robots are really bringing value in a manufacturing environment, it is combining industrial or collaborative robots with mobility," ABB managing director Ali Raja tells Axios.
- "I don't see that there are any real practical applications where humanoids are bringing in a lot of value."
What they're saying: "The reason we have two legs is because whether Darwin or God or whoever made us, we have to figure out how to traverse an infinite number of things," like climbing a mountain or riding a bike, explains Michael Cicco, CEO of Fanuc America Corp.
- "When you get into the factory, even if it's a million things, it's still a finite number of things that you need to do."
- Human-shaped robots are over-engineered solutions to most factory chores that could be better solved by putting a robot arm on a wheeled base, he said.
"The thing about humanoids is not that it's a human factor. It's that it's more dynamically stable," counters Melonee Wise, chief product officer at Agility Robotics, which is developing a humanoid robot called Digit.
- When humans grab something heavy, they can shift their weight for better balance. The same is true for a humanoid, she said.
- Using a robotic arm on a mobile base to pick up something heavy, "it's like I'm a little teapot and you become very unstable," she said, bending at the waist.
General-purpose humanoids are still grappling with technical challenges, and it will years before they can safely roam around factories doing meaningful work.