2025 Poll Results:
Our latest poll in partnership with YouGov found that British citizens overwhelmingly favor halting the quick development of superintelligence (73%), particularly through empowering the Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute (AISI) as a regulator (74% supporting).
Specific interventions championed by ControlAI that found widespread support include a licensing regime (71% supporting), a safety regime for AI development (87% supporting), and monitoring large compute clusters (76% supporting).
Controls on AI systems advocated by ControlAI that also received significant support from the public including prohibiting AI that could: break out of their environment (75% supporting), recursively self-improve (63% supporting), and become smarter-than-human (60%).
The findings demonstrate broad public backing for comprehensive safety measures, from mandatory testing of advanced AI models by the AISI (82% supporting) to legal frameworks holding companies accountable for AI-related harms (82% supporting). When comparing the current unregulated approach with a government-supervised framework designed to prevent potential dangers, respondents consistently and decisively preferred stronger oversight.
This public mandate presents an opportunity for the government to implement surgical, targeted, regulations focused on the most capable AI systems, addressing growing concerns about AI safety and governance.
All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 2,344 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 16th - 17th January 2025. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all UK adults (aged 18+).
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