Eighty-eight percent of voters worry the rapid pace of Beijing’s technological advancements will enable its military buildup.
China’s development of artificial intelligence capabilities has alarmed a vast majority of Americans, with 88 percent of voters worried that the rapid pace of Beijing’s technological advancements will enable its military buildup, according to a recent survey.
The poll of 2,000 voters was conducted in December and April by Mercury Analytics on behalf of the American Edge Project, a national security-focused tech-policy advocacy group. The results of that survey were obtained exclusively by National Review.
“The vast majority of nationwide voters – especially voters who make up Trump’s base – are worried about the potential China has to become a global leader in AI,” a memo accompanying the survey results stated. “Specifically, they worry that if China does become a global leader in AI, it could have dangerous repercussions for the U.S.’s national security, enable censorship and surveillance, and give China a competitive economic advantage.”
China’s government has long pursued a “military-civil fusion” strategy whereby it has leveraged civilian technological development for military purposes.
The release of DeepSeek’s R1 artificial intelligence chatbot model, by a Chinese company, in January inspired U.S. concern about China’s strides toward achieving technological supremacy. The R1 model was found to have censored its responses based on the Chinese Communist Party’s political sensitivities, offering Americans a look at how Beijing’s authoritarianism shapes Chinese tech.
The American Edge poll indicates that while DeepSeek has fallen out of the headlines, American voters haven’t let go of their worries about China’s AI capabilities.
Sixty-seven percent of voters surveyed reported being very or somewhat worried about China potentially becoming a global AI leader. Broken down by party affiliation, that includes 66 percent of Democrats and 69 percent of Republicans surveyed. Seventy-three percent of self-described MAGA Republicans said they were worried.
In addition to the integration of AI advances into China’s military buildup, similarly high numbers of survey respondents said that their worries are also based on China’s online censorship and the authoritarian nature of the Chinese Communist Paty.
American Edge said that this shows that the U.S. should preserve open-source AI — models with publicly accessible code that can be integrated into other tech platforms— as an option, because more than two-thirds of respondents said that it could help America compete with Chinese tech advances.
“Voters across the political spectrum are worried about China becoming the global leader in AI and the ramifications that would have on the U.S.’s economic standing, values, and national security. Innovations in open-source AI can help protect the U.S. from China’s threats, strengthen the U.S.’s military, encourage values like free speech, and give the U.S. a competitive edge,” the survey memo stated.