Roughly two-thirds of Americans believe AI is advancing at too fast a rate — even as a majority of adults are using chatbots, according to a new Pew Research Center study examining U.S. sentiment toward the technology.

The study also found that 40% of respondents believe AI will ultimately be worse for society — but most Americans don’t believe the U.S. government or U.S. businesses can effectively regulate its use. In the Pew report, released Wednesday, 67% of Americans had little to no confidence that the U.S. government could regulate the technology, while 59% had little to no confidence that U.S. companies could responsibly develop the technology. More Democrats than Republicans were skeptical of the government regulating AI.

Taken together, the findings reflect Americans’ growing concern over whether the government or the businesses developing the technology are looking out for their best interests, particularly as tech companies experiment with increasingly sophisticated AI models and the government expands its partnerships with AI platforms.

“AI is no longer the future; for many, it’s here and now,” Pew Research Center associate director of research Jeffrey Gottfried said in a statement. “Americans are increasingly using chatbots and bringing AI into their homes, but they have a complex relationship with AI. They may use it, but they’re still highly skeptical of it and how it will impact our society.”

The Pew report is based on a survey of 5,119 U.S. adults conducted in February. About half of U.S. adults (49%) use AI chatbots, up from a third of respondents surveyed in 2024, and many reported that chatbots were more likely to boost their productivity and keep them better informed. The most common use case (42% of respondents) was information searching, while others included tools for fun (25%), creating and editing images or videos (24%), medical advice (20%), and diet and fitness information (20%). Fewer used the models for things like news (13%), emotional support (10%) or companionship (4%).

Many companies have infused their bevy of online offerings with the technology, such as Microsoft’s incorporation of Copilot into its 365 suite and Google’s use of Gemini across Google Search and Drive. Still, ChatGPT remains the dominant chatbot among U.S. adults, with 44% of respondents using the OpenAI application. Google Gemini ranked second with 24%, followed by Microsoft Copilot (17%), MetaAI (14%), Grok (8%), Claude (6%) and Character.ai (3%).

Many of the Americans surveyed also acknowledged using products with AI features, including smartwatches (37%) and speakers, such as an Amazon Echo or Apple HomePod (35%). Of the 51% of U.S. adults who don’t use AI, 60% said it boiled down to disinterest.

And when it comes to personal data, 71% of respondents agreed: AI will make it less secure.

Pictured above: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman