What worries people about AI

The "Digital 2026 Mid-Year Global Update Report" highlights a significant shift in public sentiment regarding Artificial Intelligence, with unreliability emerging as the primary concern for 26.7 per cent of respondents.

This data suggests that as AI becomes more integrated into daily life, users are increasingly wary of its potential for errors and inconsistent performance.

Economic and existential fears follow closely behind; jobs and the economy (22.3 per cent) and autonomy and agency (21.9 per cent) remain high-priority anxieties, reflecting deep-seated worries about displacement and loss of human control.

Interestingly, the psychological impact of AI is gaining traction, with 16.3 per cent of people concerned about cognitive atrophy, or the potential decline of human critical thinking skills.

While issues like misinformation (13.6 per cent) and surveillance (13.1 per cent) are often the focus of regulatory debate, they rank lower than fundamental questions of trust and utility.

These findings emphasise that for AI to achieve broader acceptance, developers must prioritise accuracy and reliability over mere capability.