61% of Americans oppose AI
61% of Americans hold a negative opinion of AI, according to a figure cited by Jason Heiner, making public trust one of the biggest challenges facing AI companies.
Snapshot · This Week in Tech (Audio)
TWiT 1091: But You Didn't Move the Bodies - Surprising Supreme Court Move on Geofence Warrants
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Jul 6, 2026
Where this was said
OpenAI's 5% Government Stake Proposal and AI's Public Trust Crisis
At 40:12 · chapter starts 39:40
Leo introduces OpenAI's proposal to hand the Trump administration a 5% stake across AI companies when they go public, with an eye toward redistributing the economic gains. Jason provides the non-cynical read: the proposal came from internal researchers genuinely worried about job displacement and wealth concentration, not from executives. But Owen has zero patience for it [1] — Owen JJ Stone "If you told me that, that would get every doofus that doesn't know anything about anything on your side instead of filling up buses with gu…" 43:28 , arguing that trickle-down economics has been promised since before he was born and never delivered. The real carrot, he insists, is simple: decouple healthcare from employment so that when AI eliminates your job, you don't also lose your ability to see a doctor. Lisa agrees, pointing out the cruel irony of AI boosters promising to automate away white-collar jobs while the workforce relies on employment-based healthcare. Jason puts the public opinion number on the table: 61% of Americans have a negative view of AI, and he thinks that's conservative.
OpenAI 5% stake proposal
OpenAI proposed giving the Trump administration a 5% stake in AI companies, ostensibly to distribute AI economic benefits to the American public — though the mechanism remains unclear.
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