Technologies

Americans Want More Control Over the AI in Their Lives, Pew Survey Finds

While tech companies keep adding more and more AI to their services and devices, most people want the ability to say no or opt out.

Artificial intelligence is everywhere now, powering song recommendations on Spotify, filling inboxes with AI-written emails, and showing up in classrooms and workplaces around the world. You may not feel like you get much say in where and how AI shows up in your life. You’re not the only one.

That’s the takeaway from a Pew Research Center report published Wednesday, which finds that six out of 10 Americans (61%) want more control over how AI is used in their lives. More than half (57%) say they currently have «not too much» or «no control» at all in whether AI is used in their lives. Just 13% say they feel they have «a great deal» or «quite a bit» of control.

It’s becoming apparent that Americans may be receptive to AI playing some kind of role in our daily lives, but are resistant to AI involvement becoming unavoidable.

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The growing AI control gap

The numbers highlight what Pew calls an «AI control gap,» or a widening sense that the choice to opt out is slipping away. AI already powers weather forecasts, financial fraud detection and drug research, areas where Americans told Pew they’re comfortable seeing it play a role. But in more personal aspects of life — relationships, spirituality and creative thinking — people overwhelmingly want to keep AI at arm’s length.

The survey shows Americans are twice as likely to rate AI’s risks as «high» compared with its benefits, and 53% admit they’re not confident they can tell the difference between AI-generated content and human-made work. Still, a large majority (76%) say it’s «very important» to them to know the difference.

Read also: Most People Use ChatGPT for Personal Life, Not Work, According to a New OpenAI Study

Why control over AI matters to Americans

The push for more control comes as AI quietly embeds itself in consumer devices and online platforms. From Apple’s latest «AI-powered» iPhones to Google search results summarized by chatbots, Americans are bumping into AI even when they don’t seek it out. And unlike toggles for ad tracking or location services, tools to manage when AI is used are far less visible.

That lack of agency fuels growing skepticism over AI. For instance, half of Americans say they’re more concerned than excited about AI’s role in daily life, which is 13 percentage points higher than it was in 2021, when AI use was a mere fraction of what it is today.

Pew’s findings echo broader anxieties surrounding the prevalence and implementation of AI tools. Lawmakers are weighing rules around transparency, safety and consent, while AI companies race to normalize AI in everything from education to health care to the devices you carry with you everywhere. But the Pew survey findings suggest that if companies want to build public trust, they’ll need to give people clearer off switches and choices about when AI is adopted, so that AI use feels like a choice rather than an inevitability.

Read also: AI Lies Because It’s Telling You What It Thinks You Want to Hear

Technologies

Verum Messenger: Don’t follow the future. Define it

In a world where information defines influence, Verum Messenger is building a new architecture of digital communication — intelligent, secure, and ready for tomorrow. Here, technology serves not limitations, but possibilities.

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Technologies

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Technologies

Google races to put Gemini at the center of Android before Apple’s AI reboot

Google is using its latest Android rollout to position Gemini as the AI layer across phones, Chrome, laptops and cars.

Google is using its latest Android rollout to make Gemini less of a chatbot and more of an operating layer across the phone, browser, car and laptop, just weeks before Apple is expected to show its own Gemini-powered Apple Intelligence reboot at WWDC.
Ahead of its Google I/O developer conference next week, the company previewed a number of Android updates, including AI-powered app automation, a smarter version of Chrome on Android, new tools for creators, a redesigned Android Auto experience, and a sweeping set of new security features.
Alphabet is counting on Gemini to help Google compete directly with OpenAI and Anthropic in the market for artificial intelligence models and services, while also serving as the AI backbone across its expansive portfolio of products, including Android. Meanwhile, Gemini is powering part of Apple’s new AI strategy, giving Google a role in the iPhone maker’s reset even as it races to prove its own version of personal AI on the phone is further along.
Sameer Samat, who oversees Google’s Android ecosystem, told CNBC that Google is rebuilding parts of Android around Gemini Intelligence to help users complete everyday tasks more easily.
“We’re transitioning from an operating system to an intelligence system,” he said.
As part of Tuesday’s announcements. Google said Gemini Intelligence will be able to move across apps, understand what’s on the screen and complete tasks that would normally require a user to jump between multiple services. That means Android is moving beyond the traditional assistant model, where users ask a question and get an answer, and acting more like an agent.
For instance, Google says Gemini can pull relevant information from Gmail, build shopping carts and book reservations. Samat gave the example of asking Gemini to look at the guest list for a barbecue, build a menu, add ingredients to an Instacart list and return for approval before checkout.
A big concern surrounding agentic AI involves software taking action on a user’s behalf without permissions. Samat said Gemini will come back to the user before completing a transaction, adding, “the human is always in the loop.”
Four months after announcing its Gemini deal with Google, Apple is under pressure to show a more capable version of Apple Intelligence, which has been a relative laggard on the market. Apple has long framed privacy, hardware integration and control of the user experience as its advantages.
Google’s Android push is designed to show it can bring AI deeper into the device experience while still giving users control over what Gemini can see, where it can act and when it needs confirmation.
The app automation features will roll out in waves, starting with the latest Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel phones this summer, before expanding across more Android devices, including watches, cars, glasses and laptops later this year.
The company is also redesigning Android Auto around Gemini, turning the car into another major surface for its assistant. Android Auto is in more than 250 million cars, and Google says the new release includes its biggest maps update in a decade and Gemini-powered help with tasks like ordering dinner while driving.
Alphabet’s AI strategy has been embraced by Wall Street, which has pushed the company’s stock price up more than 140% in the past year, compared to Apple’s roughly 40% gain. Investors now want to see how Gemini can become more central to the products people use every day.
WATCH: Alphabet briefly tops Nvidia after report of $200 billion Anthropic cloud deal