USC survey finds 76% of Americans want more AI regulation

A national survey from the University of Southern California finds that 76% of Americans say the government does too little to regulate AI, while 77% say the same about data centers, as detailed by USC Annenberg. Nearly one third rank AI and data centers among the country's three most important issues, behind inflation and the cost of living at 86% and political polarization at 35%.

The survey found that 71% do not trust large technology companies at all to act in society's best interest when developing data centers, while 59% say the same about the federal government. It also found that 60% view data centers as bad for nearby communities, 67% view them as bad for the environment and 62% oppose construction in their area.

Among daily AI users, nearly three quarters say the government does too little to regulate AI and three quarters say data centers need more regulation. The October 2026 survey included 2,980 Americans recruited through probability based sampling.