Americans trust AI less than consumers in almost every other country surveyed, and new global data shows that distrust hits hardest in one place: the news.
The findings come from a YouGov and Meltwater study of nearly 10,000 consumers across seven countries, fielded February through March, paired with Meltwater’s analysis of more than 150 million online mentions of generative AI over the prior 12 months. YouGov’s US sample drew a minimum of 1,050 respondents, weighted to be representative of the adult population.
Across the markets surveyed, 53% of consumers said they find AI use acceptable in entertainment content. That acceptance rate collapses to 21% for news reporting and 18% for political advertising, the widest gap in the study. Product advertising (47%) and educational content (44%) landed closer to entertainment, while customer service (under 39%) and influencer marketing (28%) fell in between.
American respondents in the YouGov data skewed more anxious than most of the other markets surveyed.
Only 25% of US consumers said they are excited about the future of generative AI, the second-lowest reading among the seven markets, just ahead of the UK’s 23%, compared with 35% in France and higher marks in Germany and Singapore. US concern levels ran near the top of the seven-country set across nearly every risk category Meltwater and YouGov tracked, including 58% who worry AI-generated content could be used to create fake news or scams and 49% who said it may already be hard to tell whether content was made by a human or by AI.
Disclosure emerged as close to a universal expectation. 86% of all respondents said it is important that content explicitly states when AI was involved, and 59% said a lack of disclosure reduces their trust in a brand outright. The US and UK reported the highest levels of concern of any markets surveyed. The pattern lines up with what Crowd React Media found when it tested radio audiences directly.
The Harker Bos Group unit’s blind-listening study of 1,326 weekly listeners, covered by Radio Ink, found AI and human voiceover scoring within a few points of each other on trust, energy, and likability for imaging and promotional reads. Once listeners learned which voice was which, reactions split sharply along the same content lines Meltwater and YouGov describe.
