A CBS News poll has surfaced what many researchers and ethicists have long sensed: the American public's trust in the architects of artificial intelligence is eroding faster than the technology itself is advancing. A majority of those surveyed believe AI development poses a genuine risk to humanity — a quiet but consequential verdict from ordinary people who have watched a powerful force embed itself into the decisions that govern their lives. This divergence between industry optimism and public wariness is not merely a matter of sentiment; it is the kind of signal that reshapes what governmen