AI Backlash Hits Balance Sheets as CEOs Concede
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- Pew Research found 52% of Americans say they are "more concerned than excited" about AI's increased use in daily life, up from 37% in 2021, while a May Economist/YouGov poll found over 70% think AI is advancing too quickly.
- The National Republican Senatorial Committee sent a memo to top AI companies warning that U.S. data centers are hurting the party's chances in a key Ohio election, per Axios.
- The Wall Street Journal reported tech companies are sweetening data center deals with job guarantees, clean water investments, and in one Louisiana parish, $50,000 bonuses for teachers.
- Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called negative AI perception a "big problem" that is fundamentally a "crisis of trust," admitting AI companies "haven't yet delivered on our big promises to benefit the world."
- Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said the AI backlash is real and tied to the industry failing to ship products that "regular people" actually like and want to use.
- eBay listings show AI-free classic iPods selling for top dollar, part of a broader consumer shift toward retro tech — dumbphones, point-and-shoot cameras, tape decks, CD players — and "grandma hobbies" like quilting, knitting, and jigsaw puzzles.
- A CNBC poll of 18- to 34-year-olds found a majority don't trust nine top AI industry leaders to "act responsibly" when it comes to AI.
Why it matters: For an industry that raised hundreds of billions on AI's inevitability, souring public sentiment is becoming a business problem: tech companies are already paying for it through sweetened data-center deals, and CEOs at Anthropic and Airbnb are publicly admitting the products aren't landing with consumers.
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