Behind the Curtain: AI's biggest threats

The big picture: It's almost certain to get worse for AI. Here's why: Every major AI company is racing frantically to pump out new, more human-like models and then boast about their awesome capabilities. Every advancement or boast likely causes an equal and opposite reaction from voters. They get more anxious.

• The AI companies are pouring money into politics, but it's mostly to thwart regulation they think could slow AI, not polish its image. So AI's image is shaped largely by critics or background noise.

This weekend at the National Governors Association's annual meeting in Washington, Mike talked with governors from states big and small, red and blue. Most said voters not only fear AI's effect on kids and jobs, but they also find it creepy.

• "Many people think AI is either a science fiction movie or something that is going to take their jobs," Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D), vice chair of the NGA, told us. "Government hasn't done a good job helping people separate fact from fiction. When people think about AI, they need to move beyond what they saw in a Will Smith movie." ("I, Robot" trailer)
• Indiana Gov. Mike Braun (R) is an optimist about AI as a force for good, especially in health care. But he told us many of the Hoosiers he talks to are worried about what China or North Korea might do. "When you get off to a bad start with an image, that's tough to fix," he said.

Poll after poll puts numbers to this rising concern:

• 58% of Americans don't trust AI much or at all. 63% say AI will decrease the number of jobs in the U.S., according to an Economist/YouGov poll out last week.
• In a separate YouGov survey out in December, 77% of Americans were concerned AI could pose a threat to humanity. It's one thing to fear higher taxes. It's another thing to worry about the existence of your species!
• 79% of Americans don't trust companies to use AI responsibly, a Bentley-Gallup survey found.

AI has more than a branding problem for a new product. After watching the effects of social media on kids and society, most seem to assume AI will just be worse.

👶 Threat No. 1: Kids. Nothing unites voters quite like fear about what AI is doing to children. This is the single most politically potent dimension of the backlash.

• Among women 50+ — high-turnout voters who'll play a pivotal role in midterms — 90% are concerned about the lack of national AI standards to protect kids, with 70% very concerned, according to Fabrizio Ward data.

💼 Threat No. 2: Jobs. The fear of displacement is deep, and the class divide is widening.

• Only 7% believe AI will increase jobs. That's statistically unchanged from last fall — meaning rising AI hype and use have done nothing to ease the fears.
• The more people read about super-workers using AI to 10x their output, the more scared it makes many others. 3 in 5 U.S. employees aren't currently using AI at work (Google/Ipsos last week).

😬 Threat No. 3: The creep factor. Beyond jobs and kids, there's a visceral, almost existential unease.

• That's one of the big takeaways from our conversations with governors. It's not just that people worry about AI taking jobs, or their power bills rising because of data centers. They also have real issues with the technology itself: People associate AI with surveillance, fakery and a loss of control. They worry about AI starting wars and tech ruling us.

🔌 Threat No. 4: Energy and land wars. AI's backlash is no longer just about screens and software. It's now about the physical infrastructure being built to power it — and the electricity bills landing in people's mailboxes.

• This is the most urgent political topic locally, where rising energy and land prices are stirring a massive backlash to data centers that run the size of multiple football fields and suck up a lot of power.

Data Center Watch, which tracks opposition, says $162 billion in data center projects have been blocked or delayed since 2023.

• Just in Q2 of 2025, $98 billion in projects were stopped or stalled — more than the total for all previous quarters combined — as activism surges and local organizing gets more coordinated.

AI isn't a top-tier issue — yet. Affordability and safety are dominating midterm campaigns. But it's climbing as AI power and hype rise.

• Interestingly, there's an emerging AI divide in both parties. You see anti-AI socialists like Bernie Sanders versus pro-AI leaders like Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, though even Shapiro's stance is moderating as the winds change.
• And you see anti-AI populists like Steve Bannon versus pro-AI leaders like Trump, the entire White House and most of the GOP Congress. The 2028 elections could feature a big AI split in both parties, absent a big shift in public opinion.

The bottom line: Most voters want to go slow on AI, don't trust business, and fear the technology could erode creative thinking and threaten humanity. Neither party is trusted to handle it. This isn't a policy debate. It's a political time bomb.

• Go deeper: 2028 Dems retreat on data centers.