A new Gallup poll conducted across 37 countries shows that most people feel positive towards artificial intelligence (AI), with an average of 72% expressing curiosity, happiness, or excitement compared to 41% who are worried, sad, or angry. The survey, which involved at least 1,000 respondents per country and was conducted in partnership with Microsoft, reveals significant optimism in nations like China and Vietnam, where over 90% of people believe AI will improve daily life. However, the United States stands out as particularly concerned, with only 36% seeing AI as mostly helpful rather than harmful.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-09-23,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Story summary
A new Gallup poll conducted across 37 countries revealed that a majority of people worldwide have positive views on artificial intelligence. The survey interviewed at least 1,000 people in each country and found that in 34 out of the 37, more respondents felt curious, happy, or excited about AI than worried, sad, or angry. On average, 72% expressed positive emotions compared to 41% who had negative feelings.
In particular, China and Vietnam showed exceptionally high optimism with over 90% of respondents believing that AI would improve daily life. In contrast, only 36% of people in the United States saw AI as mostly beneficial rather than harmful. Other nations like Nigeria, Israel, and Singapore also had significant majorities feeling positive about the technology.
The poll results highlight varying global attitudes toward AI, especially contrasting optimism in Asian countries with more skepticism in Western high-income nations like the US.
Written for “Global AI Optimism Poll” on 2026-10-05,
grounded in this article and the 1 other(s) covering the same event.
Many countries are optimistic about AI, poll finds
Damien Cave
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It may come as a surprise for world leaders discussing artificial intelligence at the United Nations General Assembly in New York this week, but a large majority of people surveyed across the globe for a new Gallup poll said they felt mostly positive about AI.
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Gallup, an opinion research organisation, interviewed at least 1,000 people in each of 37 countries and found that in 34, positive emotions toward AI outweighed negative feelings.
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An average of 72 per cent of respondents said they felt curious, happy or excited about AI, compared with 41 per cent who felt worried, sad or angry.
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In China and Vietnam, more than 90 per cent of people polled said they believed that AI would mostly make daily life better.
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In Nigeria, Israel and Singapore, more than two-thirds of the respondents agreed.
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But in the United States, only 36 per cent saw AI as mostly helpful rather than harmful.
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The seven Western high-income countries that Gallup surveyed (the United States, Britain, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand, Malta and the Netherlands) dominated its ranking of the most concerned, with the United States at the top.
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Gallup plans to eventually include AI surveys in 140 countries, but this early snapshot – conducted with Microsoft, featuring a margin of error of 2.2 per cent and 4.9 percentage points – appeared to show a clear divide.
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“The most consistent finding that is emerging is that these cluster of attitudes that we see in Western countries is pretty unique,” said Pablo Diego-Rosell, a senior scientist at Gallup.
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The “worried West”, he added, tends to feature high adoption, high concern and a belief that while AI might be good for the individual, it was less likely to be positive for their country.
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Across 37 nations surveyed, the median percentage who have never tried AI is still relatively high – 57 per cent.
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In the US, it’s 32 per cent.
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Some countries where survey respondents said they felt positively toward AI were also rapid adopters.
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Singapore, China and Israel all have a higher proportion of daily users than the United States.
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Others have lower rates of use: In Vietnam, only 12 percent of those surveyed use AI daily compared with 23 per cent in the US.
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Husan Chahal, an AI risk researcher for the National Bureau of Asian Research, said that many governments, especially in Asia, frequently framed the technology first and foremost as a tool for economic development, and were eager to drive AI uptake.
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“That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re unconcerned about catastrophic risks,” she said.
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In almost every country polled by Gallup, the heaviest AI users said they were the least anxious about it.
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For example, 68 per cent of daily AI users in the United States were worried about the technology compared with 80 per cent of less frequent users, and 74 per cent of those who had never used AI.
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Edward Lim, Vietnam country director for NUS Enterprise and BLOCK71, a start-up accelerator connected to the National University of Singapore, said that views of AI were evolving rapidly and in different directions.
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He suggested that concerns were increasing in Singapore as the news of AI agents going rogue continued to spread, but in Vietnam, where human talent remains cost-competitive with AI agents, there is mostly excitement.
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“What strikes me is how open people in Vietnam are to trying new things,” he said, adding, “The poll reflects what I see on the ground.”
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The Aporia
