Australians have a lot in common with the Pope when it comes to AI

It's not often that the Pope, college students and Australians agree.

One topic that has put these unusual bedfellows all roughly on the same page is artificial intelligence.

Last week, Pope Leo XIV published his first encyclical, a 43,000-word plea to address the threats posed by AI.

American college students have been expressing their concerns by booing esteemed commencement speakers who mention the new technology (the exception that proves the rule was Australian comedian Ronny Chieng who was greeted with cheers for his message "F*** AI" at a Harvard ceremony).

It's not just a set of outlier students and pontiffs, either. Most Australians do not have particularly fond feelings towards the new technology, polling shows.

Australians have the equal most negative views towards AI in the world, according to an EY survey of people from 23 countries.

Almost half of Australians surveyed for the Minderoo Foundation say the risks outweigh the benefits, compared with about a third who believe the opposite.

Only 4 per cent of Australians say they trust their private information with AI companies, according to a new survey done by Australia's Office of the Information Commissioner.

Research from the Tech Policy Design Institute found that just 1 per cent of Australians say they have complete trust that AI will be used responsibly.

This feeling is manifesting in real world politics. Just a few years ago, the construction of data centres being used to serve AI and other tech services was mostly uncontroversial and rarely newsworthy.

Now, residents from places like Lane Cove in Sydney and West Fitzroy in Melbourne are opposing building "AI factories" in their areas. Last month, a developer pulled a proposal to build a data centre near Perth, citing community opposition.

It's a big enough problem that this week, Assistant Minister Andrew Charlton warned that Australia would face a US-style anti-AI backlash unless it kept Australians safe from the harms of AI.

So, why do Australians dislike and distrust this new technology so much?

After all, it's hard to imagine crowds cheering or a pope pontificating about another form of computing like this. (Although I would personally love to hear the bishop of Rome share his thoughts on the most promising approach in quantum computing.)

On paper, AI sounds like it should be popular. Its proponents predict that it will make us all richer, more capable and freer from drudgery thanks to the automation of boring tasks.

While many Australians may not be as immersed in AI as its makers and promoters, there's a big factor