The article does talk about perceived levels of corruption, but I also wonder about issues like freedom of press. For example, in the US the press has been free to report on bad actor data centers that are running loud gas turbines near residential areas. Are journalists in other countries as willing to report on those issues?
On that note, perhaps America's own insufficiency in urban planning is also a factor with that issue. Why are factories/data centers being built in close proximity to residential areas? That strikes me as something that a more centrally planned economy like China wouldn't do.
We can also think about America's own inefficiency with construction and energy. If you are Chinese are you really doubting your government's ability to build the national electrical grid to handle more data centers? Of course not, there are more nuclear power plants under construction in China than the rest of the world combined. Compare this to people in California who have experienced brownouts and blackouts in recent living memory, who has a government completely unwilling to invest in renewable and sustainable energy or basic energy independence. The gas price in the USA almost doubled since Trump's second term started, how much do you think a Chinese citizen who rides an eBike, takes extensive public transportation like buses and a brand new shiny subway system, or drives a fancy new EV and uses an electric high speed train to visit relatives has been affected by that?
The next thing the article misses is the fact that insane people like Sam Altman have been marketing AI as something that will be an existential threat. I highly doubt that AI proponents in Japan, South Korea, or China have been doing this, probably because their AI companies don't have pathological liars and crooks like Sam at the helm.
Regarding trust, I wonder if the US inability to implement privacy and anti-trust legislation has harmed perceptions of AI. In the US, regulators have allowed big tech to steamroll competition and vacuum up user data. US customers were early adopters to Web 2.0 companies, which have almost universally betrayed their idealistic roots in favor of addiction capitalism. Their leadership has all publicly engaged in ass-kissing exercises with the least popular US president since Jimmy Carter, a president who is so unpopular that he's flipping Kansas and Mississippi blue.
This is an era of economic frustration for much of the West where cost of living is increasing and the perception is that the ruling class and oligarchic corporations are ignoring the concerns of the masses. Most of the AI CEOs, as mentioned above, have presented themselves in public as actual Bond villains. Some basic media literacy training for people like Sam Altman would avoid a lot of the backlash against their businesses.