Americans to business: Take AI slow and do it right

While the tech industry floors the pedal on AI, the U.S. public would be happy to hit the brakes. More than three-quarters of Americans (77%) want companies to create AI slowly and get it right the first time, even if that delays breakthroughs, the 2025 Axios Harris 100 poll found. Only 23 percent of Americans want companies to develop AI quickly to speed breakthroughs, even at the price of mistakes along the way. CEOs, investors and tech companies have pushed the narrative of a do-or-die AI race — but most people would rather get AI right than get it first. The notion of an AI "race" has shaped the new technology's development at every level. All this racing has spurred investment and development, but the public hasn't yet bought into the narrative. The Axios-Harris poll respondents may simply have drawn an important lesson from bitter experience with the rise of smartphones and social media over the last two decades; business-model-driven mistakes in the early phase of technology adoption are almost impossible to correct once a new platform's cement hardens.