AI Scientists Face Growing Negative Perception

A public survey indicates that Americans have negative opinions of scientists who work on AI. Dror Walter and colleagues collected opinions about scientists from thousands of US adults via the Annenberg Science and Public Health survey and compared the perceived credibility, prudence, unbiasedness, self-correction, and benefit of scientists working on AI with those of scientists in general and climate scientists in particular. Previous work has established that high scores on these dimensions predict support for science funding and science-consistent beliefs. Respondents' perceptions of scientists working on AI were the most negative of the three, a result driven by low scores on the "prudence" dimension, specifically the perception that AI science is causing unintended consequences. Political leanings and media consumption habits did not predict opinions about scientists working on AI to the same degree that these factors predict opinions about climate scientists, suggesting the field has not been politicized—at least not yet. Perceptions of scientists working on AI were negative in both 2024 and 2025 surveys and did not improve over time. The authors interpret the persistent perceptions of scientists working on AI as an indicator that the negativity is unlikely to be solely due to a moral panic prompted by the novelty of AI. According to the authors, the evident unease with AI science suggests that the public would welcome transparent information about the effectiveness of self or governmental regulation of the emerging technology.