{"id":49701,"date":"2026-04-28T13:21:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T13:21:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/snaps-evan-spiegel-warns-tech-leaders-are-underestimating-a-coming-backlash-against-ai\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T13:21:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T13:21:15","slug":"snaps-evan-spiegel-warns-tech-leaders-are-underestimating-a-coming-backlash-against-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/snaps-evan-spiegel-warns-tech-leaders-are-underestimating-a-coming-backlash-against-ai\/","title":{"rendered":"Snap&#8217;s Evan Spiegel warns tech leaders are underestimating a coming backlash against AI"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/69efaad6367066d7c2971956?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Evan Spiegel, wearing a black shirt and a wristband, waves while standing in front of a bright yellow wall.\"\/><figcaption>Snapchat&#039;s CEO, Evan Spiegel, is an AI optimist. But he warned that backlash to the tech is gaining steam.<\/p>\n<p>FREDERIC J. BROWN\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li>Snap&#039;s CEO Evan Spiegel warned that tech executives need to worry about &quot;societal pushback&quot; to AI.<\/li>\n<li>He isn&#039;t alone \u2014 Sam Altman also recently said that AI is becoming unpopular.<\/li>\n<li>Spiegel still remains optimistic in Snap&#039;s AI investments.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The tech industry is betting big on AI. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel says executives may be misreading the public mood.<\/p>\n<p>In a recent episode of &quot;Lenny&#039;s Podcast,&quot; Spiegel warned of growing dissatisfaction with the technology \u2014 and said consumers may not embrace it as quickly as tech leaders expect.<\/p>\n<p>He said that could lead to a &quot;huge amount of societal pushback&quot; as people grapple with its impact on jobs and their energy expenses.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;We&#039;re in an industry where so much of the conversation is focused on technology,&quot; he said. &quot;People are massively underestimating the role that human adoption and human comfort with advances in artificial intelligence will determine its deployment. I think technology leaders think that folks will just blindly adopt new technology as it comes out.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Spiegel isn&#039;t alone. In March, OpenAI&#039;s CEO, Sam Altman, said AI was becoming less popular, citing concerns tied to layoffs and rising energy demand. A March NBC News poll asked registered voters across America if they had a favorable view of AI \u2014 only 26% of respondents said yes.<\/p>\n<p>The only topics with a lower favorability score in the poll were the Democratic Party and Iran.<\/p>\n<p>Even so, Snap is continuing to heavily invest in AI. The company has integrated the technology across Snapchat, including personalized chatbots and AI-powered image tools. In November, Snap inked a multiyear, $400 million deal with Perplexity AI to roll out a search tool.<\/p>\n<p>That push has also coincided with job cuts. In mid-April, the company said it would lay off 16% of its global workforce. In an internal memo obtained by Business Insider, Spiegel pointed to AI-driven productivity gains as part of the company&#039;s broader shift.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;We have already witnessed small squads leveraging AI tools to drive meaningful progress across several important initiatives,&quot; he wrote in the memo. &quot;To everyone continuing on this journey: change of this magnitude and at this speed is never easy, and it will not be seamless.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Read the original article on Business Insider<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Snapchat&#039;s CEO, Evan Spiegel, is an AI optimist. But he warned that backlash to the tech is gaining steam. FREDERIC J. BROWN\/AFP via Getty Images Snap&#039;s CEO Evan Spiegel warned that tech executives need to worry about &quot;societal pushback&quot; to AI. He isn&#039;t alone \u2014 Sam Altman also recently said that AI is becoming unpopular. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49702,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-49701","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}