New study reveals what people really think about generative AI
Trust in generative AI slightly outweighed distrust in a large analysis of Reddit discussions, but neither view came close to dominating the conversation. People mainly judged AI by whether it worked well, gave reliable answers, and proved useful through personal experience. The findings suggest AI governance and education may need to address both practical performance and concerns such as transparency, bias, and accountability. Nearly four years into the generative AI boom, people still have not settled on whether the technology deserves their trust. An analysis of more than 230,000 Reddit posts found that trust in generative AI modestly exceeded distrust. Yet the gap remained narrow, fluctuated over time, and sometimes disappeared entirely. The research, led by Drexel University examined online discussions from November 2022 through June 2025. Posts covered systems including ChatGPT, LLaMA, Claude and other widely discussed generative AI tools. About 31% of posts expressed trust, compared with 26% expressing distrust. Another 41% expressed neither position, while roughly 1% contained both. Temporal changes in the number of posts around GenAI after the release of …








