--- title: The Real Reason People Are Afraid of AI | daily.dev description: A short opinion piece exploring why people fear AI — arguing the real fear isn't about the technology itself but about how society and those in power will... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/the-real-reason-people-are-afraid-of-ai-3sto6o17y twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: The Real Reason People Are Afraid of AI | daily.dev og:description: A short opinion piece exploring why people fear AI — arguing the real fear isn't about the technology itself but about how society and those in power will... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/the-real-reason-people-are-afraid-of-ai-3sto6o17y og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/3stO6O17Y.png og:image:alt: The Real Reason People Are Afraid of AI og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # The Real Reason People Are Afraid of AI **[NeetCode](https://daily.dev/sources/neetcode)** · 1 min read · 11 upvotes · 8 comments ## Summary A short opinion piece exploring why people fear AI — arguing the real fear isn't about the technology itself but about how society and those in power will wield it. The author suggests people are less worried about AI improving and more concerned about whether its benefits will be distributed fairly or concentrated among a powerful few, echoing historical patterns of inequality. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@akashskypatel** · 4 upvotes > Not just other "people". People with money, power and influence. the technofascists like musk, thiel, et al. thats why it needs to become a public utility with public ownership in all AI. China is already ahead in this game because all of their government has ownership stake in all Chinese AI companies. This automatically makes it easier to steer them towards being more public-centric rather than just accumulation of wealth and power like in the western world. If the west doesn't adopt this model soon, its going to be a grim future for all. **@jenueldev** · 2 upvotes > I agree the fear is less 'the model gets smarter' and more 'who captures the upside.' The tech debate gets much clearer when you separate capability from ownership, distribution, and power. **@musikk** · 0 upvotes > Was there any confusion about this? I may very well live a bubble but I thought this is the prevailing fear. **@matheusluiz74** · 0 upvotes > Afraid because we may not find work and die of hunger, thats it **@lynnfredricks** · 0 upvotes > He's missing two critical (I dare say, 'terminal') points: > > Society can no longer ignore disruption.** **If you are a living, participating member of society, you must integrate adapting to disruption into your life. You do not get to go on acting like it is the pre-outsourcing days of the 1980s. > > With fear comes those that will use your fear to their advantage. Some will try to make money off of it (more than previously done). Some will try to gain authority and power by manipulating it. ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Hating AI is good, actually](https://daily.dev/posts/hating-ai-is-good-actually-ezsixelej) · Hacker News · 4 upvotes · 1 comments - [AI needs fewer Iron Men and more Smart Hulks](https://daily.dev/posts/ai-needs-fewer-iron-men-and-more-smart-hulks-vfgr0mt60) · Christian Heilmann · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [We Need to Talk About How AI Actually Makes You Feel](https://daily.dev/posts/we-need-to-talk-about-how-ai-actually-makes-you-feel-c76dzwfgx) · SQL Authority · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#ai](https://daily.dev/tags/ai), [#career](https://daily.dev/tags/career) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/the-real-reason-people-are-afraid-of-ai-3sto6o17y) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"The Real Reason People Are Afraid of AI","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-real-reason-people-are-afraid-of-ai-3sto6o17y","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-real-reason-people-are-afraid-of-ai-3sto6o17y"},"datePublished":"2026-07-08T15:16:05.912Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T08:17:13.606Z","description":"A short opinion piece exploring why people fear AI — arguing the real fear isn't about the technology itself but about how society and those in power will...","image":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/QL5MY91PMZk/sddefault.jpg","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/QL5MY91PMZk/sddefault.jpg","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"NeetCode","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"NeetCode","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--xfR6ZV0s--/f_auto/v1729363595/logos/neetcode","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/neetcode"},"commentCount":8,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-real-reason-people-are-afraid-of-ai-3sto6o17y","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":11},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":8}],"keywords":"ai,career","timeRequired":"PT1M","video":{"@type":"VideoObject","name":"The Real Reason People Are Afraid of AI","description":"A short opinion piece exploring why people fear AI — arguing the real fear isn't about the technology itself but about how society and those in power will...","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/QL5MY91PMZk/sddefault.jpg","uploadDate":"2026-07-08T15:16:05.912Z","duration":"PT1M","url":"https://api.daily.dev/r/3stO6O17Y","embedUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/embed/QL5MY91PMZk"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"NeetCode","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/neetcode"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"The Real Reason People Are Afraid of AI"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-real-reason-people-are-afraid-of-ai-3sto6o17y","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"Not just other “people”. People with money, power and influence. the technofascists like musk, thiel, et al. thats why it needs to become a public utility with public ownership in all AI. China is already ahead in this game because all of their government has ownership stake in all Chinese AI companies. This automatically makes it easier to steer them towards being more public-centric rather than just accumulation of wealth and power like in the western world. If the west doesn’t adopt this model soon, its going to be a grim future for all.","datePublished":"2026-07-08T17:05:31.196Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/3stO6O17Y#c-vrj0GDxZy","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Akash","url":"https://daily.dev/akashskypatel","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/8129618?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":4}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"I agree the fear is less ‘the model gets smarter’ and more ‘who captures the upside.’ The tech debate gets much clearer when you separate capability from ownership, distribution, and power.","datePublished":"2026-07-11T03:14:59.469Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/3stO6O17Y#c-lTTKxzFg6","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Jenuel Oras Ganawed","url":"https://daily.dev/jenueldev","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--BadmiNyj--/f_auto/v1787625077/avatars/avatar_JJtZr4Sjm?_a=BAMAMicg0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":2}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Was there any confusion about this? I may very well live a bubble but I thought this is the prevailing fear.","datePublished":"2026-07-09T07:35:02.660Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/3stO6O17Y#c-HvzKB8rFb","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Werner Hahn","url":"https://daily.dev/musikk","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocJr9LIXrt1E5zAmLx3QtOkq4iGvcwdh-t__bh6z4dhVoZyOEgE=s96-c"}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Afraid because we may not find work and die of hunger, thats it","datePublished":"2026-07-14T16:51:29.058Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/3stO6O17Y#c-a68fiJ9g3","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Matheus Luiz","url":"https://daily.dev/matheusluiz74","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/33574469?v=4"}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"He’s missing two critical (I dare say, ‘terminal’) points:\nSociety can no longer ignore disruption.** **If you are a living, participating member of society, you must integrate adapting to disruption into your life. You do not get to go on acting like it is the pre-outsourcing days of the 1980s.\nWith fear comes those that will use your fear to their advantage. Some will try to make money off of it (more than previously done). Some will try to gain authority and power by manipulating it.","datePublished":"2026-07-09T13:49:48.705Z","dateModified":"2026-07-09T13:50:50.853Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/3stO6O17Y#c-9rj9PIdm7","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Lynn Fredricks","url":"https://daily.dev/lynnfredricks","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--RD_nOlcG--/f_auto/v1725028985/avatars/avatar_9IZpn14Ye21pdYIySNTth"}}]} ```