People really hate AI, so why can’t they get enough?
By Will Douglas Heaven · Oct 5, 2026, 3:00 AM CDT
Over the summer I talked to the CEO of Springboards, a startup building an LLM that’s designed to come up with a wider variety of responses than its mainstream rivals do. At the start of the call, he said something that’s been stuck in my head since: “We often say that we’re a self-loathing AI company. We don’t know if we really like what we’re doing.” “I guess that makes me a self-loathing AI jou
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Layer 1 · Claims & fact checks
AI analysisLayer 3 · Reporting analysis
AI analysisAnecdotal framingThe article opens with a quoted joke from a CEO interview to set a tone of self‑critique, positioning the author’s viewpoint through a personal conversation.
Contrast framingThe author repeatedly frames the data as a paradox, emphasizing a binary opposition between dislike and usage to create dramatic tension.
Appeal to authorityCitations to well‑known institutions are used to lend credibility, but no direct references or links are provided, so the authority cannot be verified.
Hyperbolic languageThe article uses strong, emotive phrasing to heighten perceived stakes, which pushes the piece toward opinion rather than neutral reporting.
Comparative analogyThe author draws a parallel between AI and past tech trends to suggest a pattern, but provides no data to substantiate the comparison.
Context
AI analysisMissing context
The article provides no details on survey methodology, sample sizes, question wording, or dates; it does not cite the original Pew, Stanford, Gallup, NBC, or Sensor Tower reports, nor does it explain how "AI products and services" were defined, making it impossible to assess the reliability of the statistics.
Important context
Public opinion surveys, AI adoption metrics, and the rapid growth of state‑level AI regulation are all relevant to understanding the tension between AI enthusiasm and anxiety.
Opinion vs. reporting
AI analysisThe piece blends opinion (the author’s interpretation of why people “hate” AI) with reporting (references to various polls and usage figures) without clearly separating the two, leading to a largely interpretive narrative rather than straight news.