Americans are increasingly using AI bots — even for information about their own health: Polls
The ChatGPT app by OpenAI is shown on a cell phone on March 03, 2026 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Recently released polling on Americans’ opinions of artificial intelligence gives us an updated look at how people are interacting with AI, what they are using it for and whether they are skeptical of the technology.
About half of American adults (49%) said that they have used chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot before, up from 33% in 2024, according to a Pew Research Center report released Wednesday.
The study found 42% of adults who used chatbots used them to search for information, 38% used it for work tasks, 25% for fun or entertainment, 24% for creating or editing images or videos, 20% for medical advice and another 20% for diet and fitness information.
About a quarter of Americans — 24%– said they used chatbots daily, according to Pew.
The Pew study found that, overall, while Americans under 50 years old were more likely than those 50 and older to use chatbots, use has risen over time among adults of all ages. And while men and women both use chatbots at roughly the same rate overall, more men use chatbots on a daily basis than women.
The share of Americans using AI bots for advice and information on health has also increased. A KFF study released Wednesday found that 29% of Americans said they used AI tools or chatbots at least monthly for information and advice on health, up from 17% in 2024.
Most of these users, 56%, are confident they can determine what is true and what is false when accessing health information on chatbots. Younger adults were more confident than older adults.
Still, Americans are skeptical of AI chatbots.
Pew found that more Americans (40%) said that AI will have a negative impact on society over the next 20 years while only 16% said it will have a positive impact. Americans are also more negative on AI’s impact on themselves: 31% said it will have a negative impact over the next 20 years rather than a positive one (23%).
Younger adults are more wary about the impacts that AI will have on society and themselves than older adults, according to Pew. Nearly half of adults under 30 (48%) believe that AI will have a negative impact on society, compared to 39% of those 30 to 49 and 37% of those 50 and older. While 37% of adults under 30 said the impact on themselves will be negative, that falls to 30% among those 30 to 49 and 28% of those older than that.
Americans largely think AI is moving too fast: A 63% majority of adults said that AI is advancing too quickly, according to Pew, while 19% said it was moving at the right pace and just 2% said it was moving too slowly.
Americans are also concerned about personal information and AI. Pew found about 7 in 10 adults (71%) said that the use of AI will make personal information less secure.
While Americans don’t trust big tech or AI companies to do what’s best, they also don’t trust the government to keep them in check.
A CNN poll, also released Wednesday, found 69% of Americans saying they trust companies developing AI tools “a little” or “not at all” to do what is best for their users.
Pew found a similar share of Americans voicing skepticism that the U.S. government will regulate AI effectively (67%).
Democrats have become less confident in the government regulating AI. In a 2024 Pew Research Center poll, 54% said they had not much or no confidence in the government regulating AI effectively, rising to 74% in the new Pew poll. Republicans’ lack of confidence has declined over the same period from 70% to 61%. This divergence in the views of Democrats and Republicans over time may be because there was a Democratic president in 2024 and a Republican president now.
The Pew Research Center poll was conducted Feb. 17-23 among 5,119 U.S. adults with an error margin of +/- 1.6 percentage points, including 2,605 AI chatbot users with an error margin of +/- 2.2 percentage points.
The KFF poll and the CNN poll were both conducted May 7-31 among 2,480 U.S. adults and have an error margin of +/- 2.7 percentage points.
Caution tape near the front entrance of Temple Israel a day after an active shooter incident on March 13, 2026, in West Bloomfield, Michigan. Authorities say a suspect who rammed a vehicle into the synagogue and opened fire was killed after an exchange of gunfire with security, and the incident is being investigated as a targeted act of violence. (Photo by Emily Elconin/Getty Images)
(WEST BLOOMFIELD, Mich.) — The man armed with fireworks who rammed his truck into a West Bloomfield, Michigan, synagogue was carrying out “a Hezbollah-inspired act of terrorism purposely targeting the Jewish community and the largest Jewish temple in Michigan,” the FBI said.
Ayman Mohamad Ghazali was “motivated and inspired by Hezbollah’s militant ideology” for his March 12 attack at Temple Israel, Jennifer Runyan, special agent in charge of the FBI Detroit Field Office, said at a news conference on Monday.
Ghazali — who wanted to kill as many people as possible, Runyan said — died at the scene. Dozens of law enforcement officers were hurt in the incident but nobody inside the synagogue was injured, authorities said.
On March 9, three days before the attack, Ghazali, 41, started looking at web pages for local synagogues, Runyan said.
He tried to buy a gun from two different people. After they said no, he bought an AR-style rifle at a gun store, along with 10 rifle magazines and approximately 300 rounds of ammunition, she said.
Ghazali searched online for phrases including “largest gathering of Israelis in Michigan” and “Israelis near me,” and tried to delete his search history, Runyan said.
He also practiced using his gun at a shooting range and purchased more than $2,200 worth of fireworks, she said.
On March 11, he began adding photos to a Facebook photo album that he called “vengeance,” Runyan said. He posted images that included Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran who was killed in U.S.-Israeli strikes on Feb. 28, she said.
On March 12, the morning of the attack, Ghazali posted numerous photos of his deceased family members to Facebook, and he wrote online, “We will seek retribution for his sacred blood,” according to Runyan.
Ghazali’s two brothers and several other relatives were killed in an Israeli airstrike on March 5, a town official in Mashghara, Lebanon, told ABC News earlier this month.
On March 12, while sitting in the synagogue parking lot, Ghazali sent his sister “19 videos, photos and messages that reiterated his intent to commit a mass terrorist attack, as well as affirming his Hezbollah-inspired ideology,” Runyan said.
Ghazali also exchanged several short phone calls with his ex-wife shortly before the attack, Runyan said. The ex-wife called local police requesting a welfare check, she said.
On the afternoon of March 12, Ghazali plowed his truck into the synagogue and struck a security guard, authorities said. When Ghazali’s truck jammed in a hallway, he opened fire, authorities said, and security guards returned fire.
The synagogue became engulfed in fire. Runyan said Ghazali used approximately 35 gallons of gasoline.
Ghazali died at the scene from a self-inflicted gunshot wound during an exchange of gunfire with security guards, officials said.
Dozens of law enforcement officers were treated for smoke inhalation, authorities said, but nobody inside the synagogue was hurt, including all 140 students at the building’s preschool. The security guard hit by the suspect’s truck was expected to be OK, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said.
Runyan said she couldn’t say whether Ghazali was inspired by the strikes in Iran but did say he was “engaging in that ideology” before his relatives’ deaths. She said the FBI has not been able to verify if Ghazali — a U.S. citizen with no criminal history — was in Hezbollah.
U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan Jerome Gorgon said at Monday’s news conference, “Had this man lived, I’m convinced that my office would prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that he committed the federal crime of providing material support to Hezbollah.”
Ghazali “acted under Hezbollah’s direct and control,” Gorgon said. “Terrorist propaganda is designed to activate the so-called ‘lone wolf’ to act on behalf of the terrorist organization.”
A vehicle belonging to Vance Boelter is towed from the alley behind his home on June 14, 2025 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Federal prosecutors will not seek the death penalty against Vance Boelter, the man charged in the 2025 fatal shooting of a Minnesota state representative and her husband, and another attack that left a second lawmaker and his wife wounded, according to a Department of Justice spokesperson.
Prosecutors declined to pursue the ultimate punishment against 58-year-old Boelter because a federal judge ruled earlier this year in an unrelated murder case that interstate stalking charges do not rise to the level to support a capital crime, officials said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Motorists drive through rainfall as a storm delivers heavy rain to the region on February 16, 2026 in Pasadena, California. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — El Nino conditions are present and expected to strengthen in the coming months, bringing potentially significant impacts to our weather, the upcoming hurricane season and global temperatures, according to the latest forecast from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
NOAA issued an El Nino Advisory on Thursday, meaning El Nino conditions are observed and expected to continue. Its latest forecast calls for a strong El Nino to likely develop in the fall, with a 63% chance of a very strong El Nino between November 2026 and January 2027, which could rank among some of the strongest such events on record.
NOAA also noted that stronger El Nino events only make certain impacts more likely and do not always guarantee strong impacts.
El Nino refers to the warmer-than-average phase of the El Nino–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), a natural cycle where sea surface temperatures across the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean rise and fall. The cooler-than-average phase is called La Nina, while near-average conditions are known as ENSO-neutral.
NOAA ranks the strength of El Nino events by measuring the sea surface temperature departure from average (anomaly) across this region, classifying events as weak, moderate, strong or very strong.
Forecasters say confidence in a strong to very strong event later this year has increased now that the spring season has passed. This is largely because spring in the Northern Hemisphere is when sea surface patterns across the tropical Pacific Ocean are in a transitional phase contributing to lower model accuracy.
“We need to prepare for a potentially strong El Nino event, which will exacerbate drought and heavy rainfall and increase the risk of heatwaves both on land and in the ocean,” WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo said in a statement.
While adjectives such as “super” and “extreme” are popular ways of describing the strength of an El Nino event on social media, NOAA and the WMO classify the strength as weak to moderate, strong, and very strong. The WMO noted in a recent statement that “the term [[super]] is not part of standardized operational classifications.”
El Nino and La Nina events occur at irregular intervals, typically every 2 to 7 years. El Nino has been somewhat more frequent than La Nina in past observations, but both phases vary in timing and intensity from one cycle to the next.
As Earth’s climate warms, however, identifying and measuring these events becomes more challenging because temperature differences are superimposed on the long-term ocean warming trend.
“As the climate warms, interpreting anomalies becomes more challenging,” said Dr. Tim Stockdale, principal scientist at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). “Rising background temperatures can make recent El Nino events appear stronger than they are, and La Nina events seem weaker.”
To address these challenges, NOAA and ECMWF updated the way they measure El Nino and La Nina this year, using a new index which compares sea surface temperatures in the central Pacific to global tropical ocean conditions rather than just that region’s historical data. NOAA calls this new method the Relative Oceanic Nino Index (RONI), which helps remove the effect of overall ocean warming.
The WMO notes that there is no evidence that human-amplified climate change increases the frequency or intensity of El Nino events.
Typical El Nino impacts across the United States
Impacts from El Nino, similar to La Nina, tend to be most consistent and pronounced from late autumn through early spring following the event’s onset, NOAA says. There is usually a delay between the onset of the event and many of the associated effects.
Experts caution that the impacts on weather patterns are nuanced. Each season is different, and typical El Nino conditions don’t always materialize.
“Every El Nino is different in terms of timing, magnitude, and geographic extent, and such differences lead to variability in the impacts — on temperatures and rainfall, for example — on a global scale,” Andrew Kruczkiewicz, senior staff researcher at Columbia Climate School, said.
Typically, during El Nino, the northern half of the United States and parts of Alaska are more likely to see warmer-than-average temperatures, with near- to below-average temperatures favored along the southern tier of the U.S., most likely from Texas to the Southeast.
For precipitation, wetter-than-average conditions are typically observed along the southern tier of the U.S. in parts of California, the Southwest, Gulf Coast and Southeast. Below-average precipitation is frequently observed across parts of the northern Rockies, south-central Mississippi Valley, Ohio Valley and Great Lakes regions.
El Nino typically increases the odds of above-average snowfall in the southern Rockies, south-central Plains, mid-Atlantic and coastal areas of the Northeast, with below-average snowfall favored in the northern Rockies, northern Plains and Great Lakes regions.
El Nino’s influence on hurricane season activity
El Nino conditions often suppress tropical activity during the Atlantic hurricane season by producing unfavorable atmospheric winds. In the Eastern Pacific, the opposite occurs, with favorable conditions supporting above-average hurricane season activity.
This was reflected in NOAA’s hurricane outlook released on May 21, with the agency predicting below average tropical activity for the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season with above average activity likely in the eastern Pacific.
“El Nino increases convection (thunderstorms) across the eastern and central Pacific, which causes downstream wind shear over the Atlantic from strong upper-level winds,” said Andy Hazelton, an associate scientist at the University of Miami’s Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies.
Vertical wind shear, which refers to changes in wind speed and direction with height in the atmosphere, is often a primary factor in below-average hurricane season activity. Strong vertical wind shear can tear a developing tropical system apart or even prevent it from forming, NOAA says.
“The rising motion over the Pacific also leads to increased subsidence (sinking air) over the Atlantic, which suppresses thunderstorms and tropical cyclone development,” Hazelton added.
El Nino’s impact on tropical activity will largely depend on how quickly it intensifies. Even so, El Nino is only one of several important variables which influence tropical activity.
Other factors, such as sea surface temperatures, also play an important role in tropical cyclone development and strength. Unseasonably warm ocean waters can partially offset the effects of unfavorable atmospheric winds, according to forecasters.
Global temperature records could be challenged again
2024 ranked as the planet’s warmest year on record, following the last El Nino event, which emerged in mid-2023 and persisted through spring 2024, according to NOAA. However, the return of El Nino means global temperature records could be challenged again in the near future, depending on its peak intensity and duration.
While global air and sea surface temperatures are currently falling short of new record highs, climate scientists warn this pause is unlikely to last. Record highs in global average temperature often occur during El Nino years, combined with the long-term global warming trend driven primarily by human-caused greenhouse gas emissions.
“Warmer ocean temperatures associated with El Nino, together with its tendency to favor warmer conditions in many areas, often contribute to warmer than normal global annual temperatures,” Jon Gottschalck, Chief of the Operational Prediction Branch at NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center said.
According to NOAA, 2025 ranked as the third-warmest year on record globally, trailing 2024 and 2023. The slightly lower ranking came amid recent La Niña conditions, which typically cause a temporary dip in global average temperatures.
There is usually a delay between the onset of El Nino and its peak impacts on global temperatures, NOAA says. As with the most recent event, its greatest influence often occurs in the months after it peaks, which can keep global temperatures elevated into the following year.
According to the latest outlook from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, the likelihood that 2026 will rank among the five warmest years on record is about 98.5%, while the probability of it becoming the warmest year is less than 1%. However, those odds could rise significantly in 2027, depending on how the event unfolds.
