AXIOS

Three distinct camps are forming around AI: power users, doubters and resisters.

Why it matters: AI isn’t just advancing — it’s fragmenting how people see the world.

The big picture: The disconnect is showing up everywhere — from job-loss fears to data center protests to actual violence.

Doubters still see AI as glitchy chatbots and viral fails. They aren’t using its full capabilities.
Power users run AI agents around the clock, trading tips on how to automate work and decision-making.
Resisters understand AI, think they know where it’s headed and want no part of it.

What they’re saying: “There is a growing gap in understanding of AI capability,” former OpenAI and Tesla AI leader Andrej Karpathy posted on X. He added that many people let a single session with ChatGPT’s free tier define their view of AI.

Meanwhile, Karpathy told the “No Priors” podcast that he now spends 16 hours a day issuing commands to AI agent swarms and rushes to exhaust his tokens every month.
“AI adoption is a tale of two cities,” Box CEO Aaron Levie said on X.

By the numbers: It’s a virtuous cycle. Power users have more success and more productivity boosts than casual users.

Anthropic’s March economic impact report found that experienced users attempt harder tasks and succeed more often.
The result is a new kind of economic gap between advanced users and everyone else.