Most Americans Want Federal AI Safety Standards, Human Controlled ‘Off’ Switch: Poll

A new poll has found that most Americans want federal safety standards for AI, including a human controlled “off” switch.

The poll, conducted by the Artificial Intelligence Policy Institute (AIPI), showed that a majority of respondents favor federal standards and safety regulations for AI.

The poll surveyed 1,007 registered voters from June 10 through June 11. It had a margin of error of 4.2 percent.

The survey found that 78 percent of respondents supported mandatory standards, while only 8 percent said they supported no standards at all. Respondents also favored regulation over an outright ban: 66 percent to just 21 percent.

However, when given the choice of no regulation at all or an outright ban, outright ban was favored by 63 percent to 17 percent.

“Each pairing was a forced choice between two policy positions,” AIPI stated. “The standards option was specific: companies would be mandated to implement safety and security measures for their most advanced models, addressing extreme risks—explicitly, preventing AI from creating bioweapons or evading human control; the no-regulation option placed all responsibility on users; the ban would bar systems more powerful than today’s.”

Opposition to parts of the AI industry, specifically the data centers needed to support and develop the technology, has been growing.

A recent CBS News/YouGov, found that 50 percent of respondents said they did not want to live near a data center. Only 20 percent said they would favor living near one, and the remaining 30 percent of respondents were unsure.

Most said they were worried about the potential impact on local resources such as water and electricity, with 63 percent of respondents saying the impact would be mostly bad. There were also concerns about the environment generally, with 60 percent worried that data centers were mostly harmful.

Data Centers require a significant amount of energy to operate and also use fresh water to cool systems. How much can depend on the data center and how it is designed. For example, NVIDIA recently announced that it had developed an entirely closed-loop liquid cooling system that the company says will greatly reduce water usage.

Regardless, the opposition to data centers has “consolidated into a national political force,” Data Center Watch stated. “What began as individual zoning disputes is now reshaping elections, regulation, and site viability nationwide.”

According to Data Center Watch, last year local opposition led to delays or blocking $152 billion worth of projects.

The AIPI survey found that the concerns about AI and the desire for regulation, including a guaranteed “off switch” to ensure human control, were bipartisan.

“On the flagship safety items, Democrats and Republicans land two to six points apart,” the organization stated.

“We’re currently seeing the government take a very active interest in managing the risks of AI systems and deciding what AI systems are safe enough to release,” Peter Wildeford, the director of policy at the AI Policy Network, told NBC News. “Americans want to do more on AI safety.”