What Stanford's index establishes is not that the public misunderstands AI — it is that the public is responding rationally to a different set of facts than the ones insiders are tracking. Younger workers in AI-exposed fields are experiencing growing anxiety about AI employment impacts as a present economic condition, not a speculative risk. Experts who benchmark progress against capability gains are optimistic; workers who benchmark progress against their own hiring prospects are not. Both readings are accurate within their own frame.