In a conversation on the Modern Wisdom podcast, venture capitalist David Friedberg made an observation about public opinion in the United States. According to Friedberg, a recent poll found that artificial intelligence has become the single most negatively viewed subject in the country, surpassing even one of the most polarizing political figures of the modern era.
“The number one most unfavorable thing in the United States right now according to a recent poll is AI,” Friedberg said. “More unfavorable than Donald Trump, more unfavorable than everything. It’s the most unfavorable thing.”
Friedberg attributed this to a deeply embedded narrative rather than lived experience. “It is this like this narrative that everyone’s been instituted in their minds that like this is the thing that destroys us yada yada,” he said. “And that’s the choice we have. That’s the choice we have right now is do we want to walk this path of abundance or do we want to lock ourselves up.”
For Friedberg, the fear of AI follows a familiar historical pattern where new technologies are met with dread before their benefits are fully understood. He connected the current climate directly to political strategy, arguing that fear has long been a useful tool.
“Tech is… AI is the boogeyman right now,” he said. “There’s always something. The Japanese are coming, the Russians are coming, climate change is coming. There’s always something, AI is coming. That’s the fear and it works.”
He pointed to specific political actions as evidence of this fear taking hold. “Bernie Sanders like pounding the table saying data centers need to be stopped. We got to stop all data centers this week,” Friedberg said.
Williamson pressed on whether there was something more coordinated at work behind the negativity. Friedberg acknowledged the question but pulled back from drawing firm conclusions.
“I don’t want to be too conspiratorial because that discredits a lot of this,” he said, though he did raise the possibility that foreign influence could be playing a role in amplifying anti-AI sentiment in the United States.
What troubled Friedberg most was the contradiction between what he sees as a period of extraordinary technological promise and the public mood surrounding it. “I think it’s so sad that so many people are so negative,” he said.
