AI-Related Anxiety Is Rising in the U.S. – Regulation and Privacy Top the List
AI Anxiety by category in 2025
The study analyzed five key categories: Control & Regulation, Data & Privacy, Bias & Ethics, Misinformation & Trust, and Job Displacement & Workforce Impact.
To measure public anxiety in each category, researchers analyzed the relative search interest of three keywords from each category on Google Trends, focusing on keywords that represent a person’s anxiety on a given topic, such as “is ai legal” for Control & Regulation and “is ai private” for Data & Privacy. They then calculated the average relative interest of each category’s keywords to determine the relative anxiety levels of each AI-related category.
Interest in all AI anxiety categories went up in 2025, although some spiked dramatically, while others increased gradually. Control & Regulation was the top anxiety-invoking category, followed closely by Data & Privacy. The two categories had very similar interest levels, and both experienced a spike in interest in the second part of the year. The remaining three categories remained somewhat stable, although all three experienced gradual increases throughout the year.
“The increase in AI anxiety means that people aren’t just blindly using AI and hoping for the best – they’re actually starting to understand the risks associated with AI tools and want to know more about it. We hope that most people who are searching for the terms included in the study don’t just worry about the negative effects of AI, but use that information to make more informed, responsible decisions about how they engage with these technologies,” Cybernews researchers say.
Control & Regulation increased by 256%, and Data & Privacy by 325%, between the weeks of May 25 and June 22.
Several events may have caused this surge: for instance, in June, 260 lawmakers called on Congress to remove a moratorium on state-level AI regulations. The Texas Responsible AI Governance Act was also signed into law around that time. California also released a policy that highlighted the potential harms of AI, especially relating to privacy.
Control & Regulation had the highest interest until about August, at which point Data & Privacy began to lead the way.
Around that time, major AI companies released reports about AI security threats. For example, Microsoft released a report about prompt injection attacks, and Anthropic released a report about how their model was used to conduct a large-scale data theft campaign. As AI companies began to talk about the potential security issues of their tools, users may have grown more aware of the threats.
“As people learn how much of their personal and business data is used by AI tools, they are becoming more concerned about privacy,” says Emanuelis Norbutas, chief technology officer at nexos.ai. “We are entering a time when curiosity about AI meets the reality of how it handles information. Many users are unaware that every file they upload, every chat log, and every API call can share sensitive details with systems that they cannot fully control.
“As these tools become more powerful, it gets harder to track where that data goes. While being interested in AI is a good start, protecting your privacy requires action. This means setting clear data policies, limiting what you share with AI models, and asking service providers for transparency,” Norbutas adds.
Despite the wave of tech layoffs throughout 2025, anxiety related to Job Displacement & Workforce Impact was low. The category consisted of the keywords “ai job loss”, “ai taking jobs”, and “ai layoffs”. It was the lowest-ranking category out of all 5.
Even in May, when it was reported that Microsoft will lay off 3% of its global workforce due to AI adoption, interest in this category had no noticeable increase.
Despite low interest throughout most of the year, there was a noticeable spike in Job Displacement & Workforce Impact anxiety at the end of October, which happens to be when talks about major Amazon layoffs broke out. During the week of October 19th, interest in AI Job displacement & Workforce impact was highest of all analyzed categories, even those that dominated all year. Compared to the week prior, interest in this category increased by 233%. This may suggest a shift in the level of public awareness related to AI job loss.
The AI Anxiety study shows that Americans are becoming increasingly aware of the risks and issues related to AI adoption. Although questions about regulation and privacy dominated most of the year, anxiety related to all analyzed categories increased. This shows that people are starting to look at AI more critically – not just as a new tool, but as something that’s already affecting their data, their work, and their daily lives.
Ruta Pauliukonyte
Cybernews
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