Not everyone is using AI for everything
Not everyone is using AI for everything
并非每个人都在用 AI 做所有事
No, everyone is not using AI for everything. People are consuming AI like they eat meat: some are embracing it, some are limiting their use of it, and some are avoiding it altogether.
不，并非每个人都在用 AI 做所有事。人们对待 AI 的态度就像对待肉食一样：有些人欣然接受，有些人限制使用，还有些人则完全避而远之。
Last year around this time The New York Times Magazine ran an A.I. issue with an introduction titled “Everyone Is Using A.I. for Everything. Is That Bad?” It’s an edited transcript from the Hard Fork podcast, which I think assumes two things are true that are turning out to be false. Once you’ve tried AI, you use it “for everything.” No, in fact most people who’ve tried it are just occasional AI users. AI has gotten so good that despite any misgivings, “everyone is using A.I.” No, in fact large chunks of the population aren’t using AI at all. (It isn’t really strictly defined in the article, but I’m taking AI to mean generative AI accessible via a chat interface.)
去年这个时候，《纽约时报杂志》推出了一期 AI 专刊，导语标题为《每个人都在用 AI 做所有事。这坏吗？》。这篇导语是 Hard Fork 播客的编辑版文字记录，我认为它预设了两个事实，但现在看来都是错误的。其一：一旦你尝试了 AI，你就会“用它做所有事”。不，事实上大多数尝试过 AI 的人只是偶尔使用。其二：AI 已经变得如此强大，以至于尽管有各种顾虑，“每个人都在使用 AI”。不，事实上很大一部分人群根本没有使用 AI。（文章中并未严格定义，但我所指的 AI 是指通过聊天界面访问的生成式 AI。）
“Everyone is using AI for everything” is actually “Some people are using AI for some things.”
“每个人都在用 AI 做所有事”实际上应该是“有些人正在用 AI 做一些事”。
Take Gen Z, where AI awareness is the highest: in the last year, even though AI has supposedly gotten a lot better, Gen Z AI adoption has all but stalled, with a meaningful percentage of the Gen Z population still using AI rarely, if at all.
以 AI 认知度最高的 Z 世代为例：在过去一年里，尽管 AI 被认为有了很大进步，但 Z 世代对 AI 的采用率几乎停滞不前，仍有相当大比例的 Z 世代人群很少甚至从不使用 AI。
Here’s Gallup’s year-over-year (2025/2026) breakdown: 79/81% use AI at least rarely 41/42% are anxious about AI 32/31% use AI only monthly/every few months 22/31% are angry about AI 21/19% never use AI
以下是盖洛普（Gallup）的年度（2025/2026）数据对比： 79%/81% 至少偶尔使用 AI 41%/42% 对 AI 感到焦虑 32%/31% 仅每月或每几个月使用一次 AI 22%/31% 对 AI 感到愤怒 21%/19% 从不使用 AI
This tracks with Microsoft’s new United States AI Diffusion site, based on “anonymized, aggregated Microsoft telemetry.” Their associated blog reports “more than 30 percent of the US working-age population is using AI [meaning about 70% isn’t], an increase of 3 percentage points from the end of 2025.” The underlying academic paper specifies that usage is defined as “engagement with major AI services including ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Anthropic Claude, Microsoft Copilot, and others….with at least 90 minutes of usage time in a given month.”
这与微软新的“美国 AI 普及度”网站数据相吻合，该数据基于“匿名、汇总的微软遥测数据”。其相关博客报告称：“超过 30% 的美国劳动年龄人口正在使用 AI [意味着约 70% 的人没有使用]，比 2025 年底增长了 3 个百分点。”相关的学术论文明确指出，使用量的定义是“与包括 ChatGPT、Google Gemini、Anthropic Claude、Microsoft Copilot 等在内的主要 AI 服务进行互动……且在特定月份内使用时间至少达到 90 分钟。”
The Microsoft data is brand new, and it mirrors another usage study from Datos from last year, also based on real-world usage data. The Datos study found similarly that, as of last June, only 21% of desktop devices visited “AI Tools” 10 or more times a month, 62% visited 0 times, and the remaining 17% in between.
微软的数据是全新的，它反映了去年 Datos 进行的另一项同样基于真实使用数据的研究。Datos 的研究同样发现，截至去年 6 月，只有 21% 的桌面设备每月访问“AI 工具” 10 次或以上，62% 的设备访问次数为 0，其余 17% 处于中间水平。
Back on the survey side, a recent Searchlight Institute study found “58% report using or trying AI, specifically tools like ChatGPT or Claude, divided evenly between fairly regular users (30% use at least a few times a month) [roughly matching the Microsoft/Datos data] and more infrequent users (29% have used AI, but only once a month or less).” And finally a new survey from The Argument finds “most Americans use AI once a week or less.” All of this triangulates to AI use in America at approximately one third actively using AI, one third occasionally using AI, and one third never using AI, with some movement depending on how you define those terms.
回到调查方面，Searchlight Institute 最近的一项研究发现，“58% 的人报告使用或尝试过 AI，特别是像 ChatGPT 或 Claude 这样的工具，这部分人平均分为相当规律的用户（30% 每月至少使用几次）[大致与微软/Datos 的数据吻合] 和更不频繁的用户（29% 使用过 AI，但每月仅使用一次或更少）。”最后，The Argument 的一项新调查发现，“大多数美国人每周使用 AI 一次或更少。”所有这些数据相互印证，得出美国 AI 的使用情况大致为：三分之一的人积极使用，三分之一的人偶尔使用，三分之一的人从不使用，具体比例取决于你如何定义这些术语。
In any case, this split is a far cry from “everyone is using AI for everything;” it’s much closer to “some people are using AI for some things.” AI use also hasn’t shifted that much in the past six months to a year. In fact, the only thing that has substantially changed is negative sentiment about AI has gone significantly up, for example the Gallup’s Gen Z poll reporting anger about AI jumping about 40% relative year over year.
无论如何，这种分布与“每个人都在用 AI 做所有事”相去甚远；它更接近于“有些人正在用 AI 做一些事”。在过去半年到一年里，AI 的使用情况并没有发生太大变化。事实上，唯一发生实质性改变的是对 AI 的负面情绪显著上升，例如盖洛普针对 Z 世代的民调显示，对 AI 感到愤怒的比例同比跃升了约 40%。
Many people are holding back AI use because of real AI concerns and lack of perceived AI value.
许多人因为对 AI 的真实担忧以及认为其价值感不足而抑制了使用。
I think it is a reasonable conclusion to draw from all of this data that a significant percentage of the population is actively limiting their AI usage. The Searchlight study examines a big reason why: real concerns people have with AI. The top three concerns found are “AI will replace jobs and cause unemployment” (42%), “AI will violate people’s privacy” (35%), and “AI will spread misinformation and lies” (33%).
我认为从所有这些数据中得出一个合理的结论是：相当大比例的人口正在主动限制他们的 AI 使用。Searchlight 的研究探讨了一个主要原因：人们对 AI 的真实担忧。排名前三的担忧分别是：“AI 将取代工作并导致失业”（42%）、“AI 将侵犯个人隐私”（35%）以及“AI 将传播错误信息和谎言”（33%）。
This sentiment also matches a strong desire for safety/privacy AI regulation. A solid majority thinks “the government should prioritize creating safety/privacy rules for AI, even if that means the U.S. develops AI more slowly than countries like China.”
这种情绪也与对 AI 安全/隐私监管的强烈愿望相吻合。绝大多数人认为“政府应优先制定 AI 的安全/隐私规则，即使这意味着美国在 AI 领域的发展速度会慢于中国等国家。”
Another big reason is skepticism in AI usefulness. SearchLight asked about a range of technologies and to say “whether you believe the overall impact of each technology on society is positive or negative.” AI only has an +8% net positive rating right now, right next to +7% for social media, which were only greater than crypto at -17%. Meanwhile cell phones, the internet, and solar energy are at +68%, +67%, and +65%, respectively. The Argument study broke this down further, asking about specific societal benefits from AI, finding broad skepticism and concluding “people aren’t really buying the bullish case for AI that CEOs and boosters alike are selling. In other words, the skepticism about AI’s effects is real and deep-running. And given how many people use it daily, this is not just an ill-informed set of opinions on something respondents have never seen before (like tariffs were before 2025).”
另一个重要原因是人们对 AI 的实用性持怀疑态度。SearchLight 询问了一系列技术，并要求受访者说明“你认为每种技术对社会的总体影响是积极的还是消极的”。目前 AI 的净正面评价仅为 +8%，紧随其后的是社交媒体的 +7%，仅高于加密货币的 -17%。与此同时，手机、互联网和太阳能的净正面评价分别为 +68%、+67% 和 +65%。The Argument 的研究进一步细化了这一点，询问了 AI 的具体社会效益，发现普遍存在怀疑态度，并得出结论：“人们并不真正买账 CEO 和支持者们兜售的 AI 看涨论调。换句话说，对 AI 影响的怀疑是真实且根深蒂固的。考虑到每天使用它的人数，这不仅仅是对受访者从未见过的事物（如 2025 年之前的关税）所持有的无知观点。”
It is possible for people to have one view at a societal level and then act differently at an individual level, but that does not seem to be what we’re seeing here. The plurality occasional usage and large percentage of complete avoidance speaks to the fact that a lot of people seemingly aren’t yet finding enough individual value net of their concerns to justify daily or even weekly usage. The gap in media narrative (that everyone is using AI for everything) relative to the reality (that some people are using AI for some things) perhaps reflects a bubble around early-adopting knowledge workers that includes much of the tech press (and me for that matter, though I’m trying really hard to stay connected to reality).
人们在社会层面持有一种观点，而在个人层面采取不同行动是有可能的，但这似乎并不是我们在这里看到的情况。多数人偶尔使用以及很大比例的人完全避免使用，说明许多人似乎还没有发现足够的个人价值来抵消他们的担忧，从而无法证明每日甚至每周使用的必要性。媒体叙事（每个人都在用 AI 做所有事）与现实（有些人正在用 AI 做一些事）之间的差距，或许反映了早期采用 AI 的知识工作者周围存在一个泡沫，其中包括了大部分科技媒体（也包括我，尽管我正在努力保持与现实的联系）。
It’s a mistake for companies, pundits, and policy makers to ignore how people are really feeling and acting about AI. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows.
对于企业、专家和政策制定者来说，忽视人们对 AI 的真实感受和行为是一个错误。这并非全是阳光和彩虹。