The decisive majority of New Yorkers support regulations of artificial intelligence and efforts to crack down on AI model creators, while they oppose efforts to promote the proliferation of and more widespread access to AI, a new poll from the Artificial Intelligence Policy Institute (AIPI) finds. Additionally, the survey shows that New Yorkers are currently split on Gov. Kathy Hochul’s Empire AI program, which allocates $275 million in public dollars to an AI computing center. Finally, the poll shows the vast majority of New Yorkers say the incident in which an audio-sharing site was used to create an AI-generated recording of Manhattan Democratic Party head Keith Wright criticizing a political rival via a profanity-filled rant increases their concern about AI development.  

Some key numbers from the poll:

• 68% of New York voters—including 69% of Democrats and 70% of independents—support requiring campaign ads to disclose if they use AI, while just 11% oppose such a measure.  
• 35% of New York voters support Gov. Kathy Hochul’s Empire AI program while 29% oppose it. 36% of respondents are not sure. 
• 60% say keeping dangerous models out of the hands of bad actors is the more important AI policy goal, while 24% prioritize providing the benefits of AI to everyone. 
• 49% of voters feel afraid of artificial intelligence, while 36% are not; similarly, 50% say they are more concerned about AI growth, while 20% are more excited about it.  
• 67% support state-level legislation in New York that would hold AI creators liable for potential catastrophic harms, while just 11% oppose it; more than double the share of voters oppose open-sourcing powerful AI models (48%) than support democratizing them (21%). 
• 87% of New York voters say the AI-generated profanity-laced tirade using Keith Wright’s voice made them more concerned about AI; just 14% have heard of the incident.  

“This poll makes it crystal clear that New Yorkers want to see state leaders install sensible guardrails around high-risk AI, and are not convinced by arguments in favor of the industry self-regulation,” said Daniel Colson, Executive Director of the Artificial Intelligence Policy Institute. “While some in the tech world are enthusiastic about democratizing AI, this new data shows they are standing on the side of a small minority of Empire State residents. New York’s voters want policymakers to enact legislation to protect them from the havoc increasingly powerful and sophisticated AI models can wreak. Elected officials would be wise to approach AI with caution and careful consideration of New Yorkers’ concerns about AI.”

About the Poll 

The poll was taken from Feb. 5 to Feb. 7, and contained a survey of 1,000 voters in New York State. The survey was conducted in English. Its margin of error is ±4.7 percentage points.

See full toplines here and crosstabs here.

About the Artificial Intelligence Policy Institute

The Artificial Intelligence Policy Institute is an AI policy and research think tank founded by Daniel Colson to advocate for ethical oversight of AI for mitigating potential catastrophic risks posed by AI. AIPI’s core mission is to demonstrate that the general public has valid concerns about the future of AI and is looking for regulation and guidance from their elected representatives. If politicians want to represent the American people effectively, they must act aggressively to regulate AI’s next phases of development. AIPI seeks to work with the media and policymakers to inform them of the risks of artificial intelligence and develop policies that mitigate risks from emerging technology while still benefiting from artificial intelligence.

While much of the public discussion has been oriented around AI’s potential to take away jobs, AIPI will be focused on centering the importance of policies designed to prevent catastrophic outcomes and mitigate the risk of extinction. Currently, most of the AI space comprises those with a vested interest in advancing AI or are academics. The AI space lacks an organization to both gauge and shape public opinion on the issues—as well as to recommend legislation on the matter— and AIPI will fill that role. 

Ultimately, policymakers are political actors, so the country needs an institution that can speak the language of public opinion sentiment. AIPI’s mission is about being able to channel how Americans feel about artificial intelligence and pressure lawmakers to take action.

AIPI will build relationships with lawmakers by using polling to establish AIPI as a subject matter expert on AI safety and policy issues. Politicians are incentivized to support AI slowdown policies due to the strong majority of voters supporting slowdown and regulation. But AI is currently less salient as a political issue than other topics, as so far, there have only been moderate impacts from emerging AI tech. 

AI technological advancement is and will continue to be an evolving situation, and politicians, the media, and everyday Americans need real-time information to make sense of it all. AIPI’s polling will show where people stand on new developments and provide crucial policy recommendations for policymakers.  

Daniel Colson is the co-founder and executive director of the AI Policy Institute. AIPI is a think tank that researches and advocates for government policies to mitigate extreme risks from frontier artificial intelligence technologies. Daniel’s research focuses on how AI weapons systems will impact military strategy and global political stability. Prior to AIPI, Daniel co-founded Reserve, a company focused on offering financial services in high-inflation currency regions lacking basic financial infrastructure, and the personal assistant company CampusPA. Daniel has spent the other half of his career as a researcher working at the intersection of theoretical sociology, history, military theory, and catastrophic risk mitigation. He helped Samo Burja write his seminal manuscript on sociology, Great Founder Theory, and has several forthcoming articles on the military strategic implications of Palantir’s AIP targeting and command product which has been operational in Ukraine for the past year. Learn more at https://www.theaipi.org/.

About Daniel Colson

Daniel Colson is the co-founder and executive director of the AI Policy Institute. AIPI is a think tank that researches and advocates for government policies to mitigate extreme risks from frontier artificial intelligence technologies. Daniel’s research focuses on how AI weapons systems will impact military strategy and global political stability. Prior to AIPI, Daniel co-founded Reserve, a company focused on offering financial services in high-inflation currency regions lacking basic financial infrastructure, and the personal assistant company CampusPA. Daniel has spent the other half of his career as a researcher working at the intersection of theoretical sociology, history, military theory, and catastrophic risk mitigation. He helped Samo Burja write his seminal manuscript on sociology, Great Founder Theory, and has several forthcoming articles on the military strategic implications of Palantir’s AIP targeting and command product which has been operational in Ukraine for the past year. Follow Daniel on Twitter at @DanielColson6.