Crypto conglomerate DCG finds majority of Americans sympathetic to decentralized AI, Harris poll shows

Crypto conglomerate DCG conducted a Harris poll of 2,036 U.S. respondents and found the vast majority “believe decentralized AI is more likely to support innovation and progress than centralized AI,” according to a report published on Thursday. 

“Three-quarters of Americans agree that the transformative power of AI would benefit more people if it wasn’t consolidated in the hands of a few major players,” Julie Stitzel, senior vice president of policy at DCG, said in a statement. 

While the results may be surprising given that decentralized AI remains a little-known niche, they also reflect the growing sentiment that well-capitalized U.S. tech firms do not always have users’ best interests in mind. 

For instance, there is increasing awareness around data privacy and control, even among casual social media users. This is reflected in the 88% of respondents who agree that “if AI is using their personal information and data, they should have more control over what is being used.”

AI is amplifying the discussion around many related concerns, like the issue of censorship. According to the Harris poll, 67% of consumers see centralized AI as more biased, and 59% agreed that AI is something of a public good that should be “accessible to the public without heavy regulation.”

Further, according to the poll, the issue isn’t partisan, with a majority of both Democrats and Republicans preferring decentralized alternatives. Likewise, “the deeper Americans dive into AI, the stronger their support for decentralization,” DCG wrote.

To be sure, DCG is highly exposed to the decentralized AI sector. Last November, it launched an artificial intelligence-focused subsidiary called Yuma aimed at supporting the development of the open-source Bittensor network. Both DCG and Yuma own TAO, the native token of the Bittensor ecosystem, directly. 

Crypto-AI projects experienced several flash-in-the-pan moments over that year and a half, following the success of leading closed-source development firms like OpenAI and Anthropic. 

Some proponents argue that blockchains can help distribute the computing power required for large language models, while others see natively digital tokens potentially powering a new, AI agent-led economy. Bitcoin miners, heavily invested in energy infrastructure, have also begun building out business lines to provide AI computing.