Poll Hub

This time on Poll Hub, we’re devoting the episode to one topic that has, over the course of about a week, taken over the minds of Americans: Killer AI.Although prominent experts have been warning about the possibility of superintelligent AI wiping out humanity for years, this week the conversation broke through into the mainstream. We dig through the muck to explore how AI experts are coming down on different sides of the argument, and how non-experts, including Donald Trump and other politicians, are weighing in as well.We also remember that, just a few weeks ago, data centers, the infrastructure behind AI, had broken through as a surprise campaign issue in this fall’s elections. Could the broader debate over AI become a political issue, too?Then, we look at how we’re using AI here at the Poll. Not to do polls, but to transform some elements of what we do. And, finally, we ask whether kids using AI might be the next thing to break through.And, no, we have not forgotten the fun fact. Indeed, we’ve pulled another weird one from the box!

President Trump's latest trade war, this one with Canada, has sparked big tariffs, rising costs, and the possibility of electoral backlash in several states that will determine whether Democrats or Republicans control Congress. The team looks at what Americans think of all this overall, but also how Republicans -- especially MAGA Republicans -- have darkened on Canada. And we look at how it's playing in states like Ohio and Michigan whose economies are deeply tied to Canada -- and where two key Senate races could be decided by the issue.Next, we have done many segments on the decades-long fall in how much Americans trust institutions. While that continues unabated, we wanted to look at it through a different lens: what makes an "expert" to most Americans in the current environment flooded with social media information silos?We finish with a trended fun fact that takes us from 1980 to the present -- it's a crazy wave that is coming back to where we started.

Flock cameras are becoming an unexpected political issue, with Americans increasingly divided over the balance between public safety and privacy. We look at new polling on automated license-plate readers, including why many people recognize their potential to help solve crimes while remaining concerned about the collection, storage, and use of location data. We also examine the growing push for independent oversight and restrictions on how law enforcement can access the information.Then, we turn to the ways our own childhoods shape the way we raise children. Americans are nearly evenly split between raising their kids similarly to how they were raised and deliberately doing things differently. We look at the family roles Americans remember from childhood, the parenting styles they use today, and why some parents are choosing more affection, communication and emotional openness while others seek to preserve the values and structure they grew up with.Finally for our fun fact, we ask not what is for breakfast but when is it?

Wisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial primary delivered one of the biggest polling misses of the cycle. The final Marquette Law School Poll had Francesca Hong well ahead of the field, while eventual winner David Crowley remained in the single digits. A few weeks earlier in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed eked out a win in the Democratic Senate primary after polls had shown him running away with it. So, what happened? G. Elliott Morris joins the Poll Hub team to break down where the polling went wrong, why primaries can be especially difficult to measure, and what lessons pollsters can carry into the midterms. Then, we turn to Americans’ increasingly complicated relationship with extreme wealth. New polling shows skepticism toward billionaires and how they accumulated their fortunes, but are these attitudes actually new? We look back at decades of polling on the wealthy, taxes, and economic fairness to see how Americans’ views have changed over time, and where today’s backlash fits into a much longer debate over wealth and the American Dream. We end by sending AJ off on his last episode ever. Tears. Check out Morris's Strength in Numbers site and his FiftyPlusOne polling site.

Women have transformed the American workforce, but the expectations surrounding work and family have not changed at the same pace. We look at how the traditional family model has shifted, from an era when Americans overwhelmingly believed mothers should stay home to today, when two parents working full-time has become much more common. Yet even when both parents work full-time, women continue to report taking on more parenting and household responsibilities. We also examine the progress women have made in leadership, education, and well-paying jobs, alongside the continued gender pay gap, and the divide over whether children are better off with a stay-at-home parent. Then, we turn to the changing debate over the military draft. With the U.S. preparing to automatically register eligible young men for Selective Service, we look at how Americans' views of the draft have shifted since the end of the Vietnam-era draft in 1973. We examine today's opposition to automatic registration, the debate over whether women should face the same requirements as men, and how age, gender, and military experience shape those views. And, for our fun fact, we go back to 1949, when Gallup asked Americans a very practical question for the dog days of summer....before almost anyone had air conditioning.