CHILD SAFETY
67% want tighter restrictions on children using AI.
“There’s no way to know what it’s putting in front of them when I’m not in the room.”
Yasmin, 36, single mother, the Midlands
UK AI Compass
The UK wants AI built for us,not over us.
We asked nearly 3,000 people and sat down with many more to find out what they really think. The country has clear answers. Decision-makers haven’t caught up.
We are already seeing AI deployed in our daily lives, whether you asked for it or not.
- InsuranceAn insurance quote based on things you never told them.
- TravelA holiday fare that jumps between looking and booking.
- MediaA video you couldn’t tell was fake.
- CallsA voice on the phone that turned out not to be a person.
- HealthcareA doctor’s line that’s all machines now.
- CreditA loan decision made by a model you’ll never meet.
- WorkA video interview where the thing judging you wasn’t human.
- DecisionsA decision made about you that nobody will explain.
Across the UK, the public has decided on AI.
The question is whether anyone in power has noticed.
69%
are concerned about the direction AI is heading.
80%
don’t trust the government to manage it.
85%
want stronger government action.
“It’s for those people up there. It’s not for us.”
Diane, former teacher, Lancashire
“Three companies and their shareholders. Honestly, OpenAI, Anthropic, Google. The returns on all of this are going to twenty thousand people globally, maximum.”
Niamh, 41, freelance writer, Edinburgh
We’ve decided it isn’t built for us.
Most don’t believe they’ll see a fair share of what it creates.
Just 10% think they’ll reach ordinary people
Across the UK, this is a bipartisan view.
63.5% want to rein in the unchecked power of the US tech billionaires behind AI.
And people believe power doesn’t sit with them. It sits with a handful of US tech billionaires across the Atlantic.
See how AI united Reform and Green voters in the full report →The worries, with a face and a number.
COPYRIGHT
70% say creators must give permission and be paid when their work trains AI.
“These companies are just straight-up stealing from us. Why won’t anyone prosecute them?”
Marcus, 41, illustrator, Bristol
JOBS
74% expect AI to cut the number of jobs. 10% think it’ll create them.
“I got rejected within seconds of applying. How could a human have even seen it?”
Callum, 23, recent graduate, Newcastle
INDEPENDENT REGULATOR
78% want the AI Security Institute, or similar, to have real powers to make AI systems safe.
“Who’s actually keeping an eye on these companies? We need someone with teeth.”
Pauline, 58, care worker, Sunderland
WOMEN
Young women are 20 points more likely to be concerned about the impact of AI.
Education and age widen the gap, creating two radically different realities.
It’s more than a fear of the unknown. People have used AI, seen what it can do, and still want a say in how it works.
- 60% have used an AI tool
- 65% say it’s still moving too fast
- 48% would block even anonymised NHS data for new treatments
Yet this isn’t a country that wants to switch AI off.
People are excited about what AI tools could do. They’re not asking for less technology. They’re asking for AI to be implemented in a way that works for them: with clear rules, a fair deal, and someone in charge who’s on their side.
That’s why they want creators paid, kids protected, and a regulator with teeth. These are not anti-AI demands. They are the terms on which people are willing to trust it.
“Honestly, I can’t wait for the self-driving cars.”
Market Optimist
“First thing that’s ever actually helped my dyslexia at work.”
Hopeful Regulator
Age, income, where you live: none of it tells you much about what someone thinks of AI. It’s too new for that. So we built something that does.
The UK AI Compass.
A way of sorting the country into six mindsets, by how people actually feel about AI: how worried, how hopeful, who they think wins, who they think loses.
Six mindsets. Which one are you?
Find out more about the Compass →Britain wants its own way of doing this, not a future dependent on Silicon Valley values.
This is not really about China or America. People are wary of letting a handful of Silicon Valley companies shape Britain’s future on their terms, and according to their values. But a British logo on the same model isn’t enough. The deeper question is who gets to decide, which values are built in, and whether the public has any say.
Explore digital sovereignty in the full report →Public anger is building, and there’s a political cost to ignoring it.
Labour has lost more than half the people who put it in power. AI isn’t the whole story, but the voters walking away are the ones most worried about it.
Same anger.
Opposite votes.
Trust is the difference.
What splits those switching is whether they still trust anyone in power to act. Give up on the system, and you want a hard reset? That’s the road to Reform. Still believe it can be fixed, and you want someone to make it work? That’s the road to the Greens.
1 in 7
Of the people who elected Labour in 2024, only 1 in 7 would still vote Labour tomorrow.
21 vs 12
Women are leaving Labour faster than men: by 21 points, compared with 12. They are also three times as likely to say they don’t know.
We asked people what message they would send to the Prime Minister. Here is what nine of them said.
Dear Prime Minister
-
“Would you let your children go on it unsupervised?”
Yasmin -
“Please put people before profits.”
Dionne -
“You are the Prime Minister of a country that used to regulate powerful industries and you have decided not to. History will notice. Your voters already have.”
Hannah -
“Independence isn’t a nice-to-have, it’s the whole point. Without that, all the rest of this is theatre.”
Rory -
“Stop signing contracts with Palantir.”
Leon, head of computing at a secondary school -
“Patients are going to die because of AI systems being procured without the evaluation framework they need. Clinicians and your officials both know this.”
Adam, NHS consultant -
“Governments that failed to regulate concentrated industrial power in time were remembered badly.”
Nate, academic -
“The next five years will decide the shape of AI for the next fifty.”
Theo, a writer -
“Who are you listening to, the lobbyists or the punters?”
Gary, who works in healthcare
A dot map of the United Kingdom in the six mindset colours: each dot is roughly proportional to the share of the public that mindset holds.
The country has done its part.
Britain has named the problem, named who’s behind it, and said what it wants, across a divide almost nothing else in politics can bridge. It isn’t asking anyone to stop. It’s asking to be built for. That choice is still open.
There’s language that works on all of it, Reform voter and Green voter alike. It’s tested, and it’s not the language Westminster is using.
The full report shows you which words land, and which ones quietly push the country away.
- Six British mindsets, mapped in full: who they are, how they vote, what moves them.
- The words the public uses for AI, set against the words Westminster uses.
- Every message tested, every dial trace, why each frame held or failed.
- Where the public has settled on each policy question, and the one it is still deciding.
- The electoral geography of AI anxiety.
- Recommendations, by audience.
Survey conducted by YouGov for Diffusion in partnership with the Minderoo Foundation. n=2,911 UK adults plus five focus groups. Methodology.
The country is ready for the conversation its politics has not yet had.