‘Not a Fan’: More People Are Freaked Out by AI Than Excited About It

Can you easily discern six ways that artificial intelligence (AI) is used around you every day? We don’t mean interacting with a generative AI that creates pictures or text for you, such as Dall-E or ChatGPT, but the more subtle AI usage you’ll encounter. If so, go take this quiz on AI awareness(Opens in a new window), then come back and keep reading.

Most people get from three to five of those questions right, according to Pew Research Center(Opens in a new window), the creator of the quiz. It was used in a survey of 11,004 US adults (part of Pew’s American Trends Panel(Opens in a new window)) back in December—well before ChatGPT took over tech news.

The most obvious AI use for most respondents was in fitness trackers, followed by the new wave of chatbots that are answering customer questions online and in text messages.

The higher the education level, or the higher the household income, the better chance that a person would be able to ID an AI.

Pew also found that the more someone uses the internet, the more likely they are to recognize an AI—among people who use the internet less than once a day, 65% could identify just two or fewer AI uses in the six-question quiz and just 6% nailed all six answers. The higher their level of awareness of AI, the more people believe they interact with an AI regularly.

In all, about a quarter of US adults say they have heard a lot about AI(Opens in a new window). Only 15% said they’d heard nothing at all. Those numbers also fluctuate depending on gender (more men have heard a lot about AI than women), as well as on race, age, income, education, and political leanings.

No discussion of AI should take place without thinking about its ethical ramifications, which includes surveying people about AI. Pew asked about AI’s pitfalls and found that 38% of respondents are more concerned than excited; only 15% are more excited than concerned (46% felt both emotions equally). The stronger the knowledge of AI, the more excited people are.

What may surprise you, considering all the AI news lately, is that Pew says that people’s outlook on the technology hasn’t changed much since last year’s version(Opens in a new window) of this survey.

For more, read the full report at Pew(Opens in a new window), and take a look at its extended report on AI in the healthcare field(Opens in a new window)—most of us are uncomfortable with the thought of a provider relying on AI.

This AI robot was made to be your best friend