Americans are increasingly skeptical of all things AI. A a recent poll from Emerson College found that almost twice as many people believe that AI will have more of a negative impact on the economy than a positive one, and 46% think the technology will have a negative impact on the environment compared to only 21% who believe it will have a positive impact. Morning Consult finds more and more people supporting restrictions on the construction of data centers. As the public warms to AI, politicians are pushing to position themselves as the anti-AI party ahead of the midterms. Some have more success than others.

The Democratic Party should be in pole position to be the party against AI exceptionalism. The Trump administration is doing everything in its power to support Big Tech, including signing an executive order aimed at banning states from passing AI regulations, and Republican lawmakers are trying to sneak in favor of the AI ​​industry to fees throughout the year. Democrats, on the other hand, have taken the lead in creating protections against AI. California and New York, both led by Democratic lawmakers, have passed meaningful regulations aimed at preventing AI companies and create restrictions on how AI models can be deployed for things like algorithmic price fixing.

Those are positions with broad support. A Gallup poll found that 80% of people it surveyed believe the government should regulate AI, even if it means the industry’s progress will slow down. Pew Research found that people are somewhat skeptical of that growth leading to anything in the short term, with only 17% of participants expressing the belief that AI will have a positive impact on the country in the next two decades.

And yet, some of the party’s leading voices seem set to give ground as anti-AI sentiment begins to grow in Republican circles. Business Insider recently published a story highlighting how many Senators are starting to play with AI models. Among them is Elizabeth Warren. Earlier this year, Warren SAYS he “might as well go out on the street and ask a random person and see what words they come up with” rather than asking a chatbot. Now he says he uses ChatGPT for gathering information and says it “gets an answer better than a straight Google answer,” per Business Insider.

That is not to say that he has abandoned the idea of ​​regulating technology, but he is placed in the camp of politicians who seem to have decided to surrender to the moment, probably in an effort to appear more pragmatic without realizing that it has become nihilistic. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy perhaps best encapsulates this shift. she told Business Insider“I use it, despite the fact that I think it will destroy us.”

Meanwhile, the anti-AI movement in the Republican Party is on the rise. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, likely looking for a way to put himself back in the national conversation for a post-Trump party, has positioned himself as the biggest AI opposition figure on his side of the aisle, proposed several bills to protect Floridians from the overreach of AI and data center constructions. Other figures like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Steve Bannon have also taken stances against the expansion of AI in Big Tech, although how seriously they view the right-wing these days is unclear.

The progressive wing of the Democratic Party seems to be doing its best to anchor itself as the party of the people, not AI or the companies that make it. Bernie Sanders, consistent as ever, is the furthest from anyone, proposed a national moratorium on building AI data centers while local communities are fighting to keep major infrastructure from being placed in their backyard. Others followed his lead. Gretchen Whitmer, the Democratic governor of Michigan, recently called for a ban in data centers in his state.

But whether those voices have enough power to win over the corporate wing is an open question. The fact that Warren and Murphy have changed their tune suggests that the party may once again find a way to throw away a chance to win.