The launch of AI tools was greeted with amazement by people. While some were happy they could use AI tools to finish their tasks faster, others were riddled with fears of being replaced by machines.
So, YouGov surveyed 1,073 U.S. adult citizens to tap into peoples’ sentiments about AI technology. Let’s explore the 12 main highlights from the survey results.
Feelings of Caution and Concern
While AI is designed to make peoples’ lives easier, a majority don’t seem happy about it. The tech’s potential to take jobs, breach privacy, fabricate false information, etc., raises cautionary alarm among many Americans. 54% of people already report feeling cautious about advances in AI, while 49% are concerned. 40% of U.S. adult citizens feel skeptical about AI, whereas 22% are scared of this technology.
Beating Human Intelligence
When asked whether AI will become more intelligent than people or it already has, 22% of the respondents said it is ‘very likely’ to happen. 14% of participating Americans believe AI is already more intelligent than people. These responses reflect the fear instilled in people that AI will eventually beat human intelligence and take over most of their jobs.
Putting an End to Humanity
Some Americans are concerned that AI will likely become the cause of the end of humanity on earth. They fear that AI systems will advance so much that they’ll become uncontrollable and unstoppable, leading to catastrophic side effects like mass human extinction. When the survey asked people’s opinions on this matter, nearly 15% of Americans stated that they were ‘very concerned’ that AI will lead to the end of humanity. 24% of the respondents were ‘somewhat concerned.’
Misleading Users with Biased Decisions
Since AI is trained on data published on the internet, it often inherits societal biases like gender and racial disparities. If unbiased data isn’t used for training, AI will lead to discriminatory outcomes in areas like criminal justice, loan approvals, hiring, etc. 55% of U.S. adult citizens already don’t trust AI for making unbiased decisions. The rate of distrust is higher among citizens aged 65 and above, with approximately 43% in this demographic report ‘not at all’ trusting AI for unbiased decisions.
Creating Chaos with Unethical Decisions
AI models trained on massive data sets can unintentionally perpetuate biases present in the data. It can often lead to AI recommending unethical decisions in various areas like criminal justice, hiring, etc. 39% of U.S. adult citizens fear AI will not facilitate ethical decisions.
Around 24% of Americans in the same demographic think AI’s ability to make moral decisions is ‘not much.’ People aged 45 to 64 (49%) reported more distrust in AI’s abilities to make ethical decisions, whereas those aged 65 and above (53%) displayed even lesser trust.
Spreading Misinformation
Since there are concerns about potential biases in AI’s training data, inability to grasp nuances/context, risk of generating fabricated information, etc., AI has failed to win the vote of confidence among many Americans. 19% of U.S. adult citizens think AI can ‘not at all’ generate factual information, whereas 26% of respondents said AI can ‘not much’ provide real information. They believe AI’s inability to create accurate information can fuel the spread of misinformation.
Negative Effect on Society
While AI is being praised for its revolutionary approach to work, it is also creating fear among Americans regarding mass job displacements. AI’s potential for bias in algorithms, privacy violations from data collections, fear of losing human connection, etc., are believed to affect society negatively. 54% of Americans aged 65 and above and 52% of Americans aged 45 to 64 think AI will have a ‘very negative or somewhat negative’ effect on society.
Very Negative Effect on Own Life
Various speculations about AI taking over jobs, privacy violations, algorithmic bias, etc., make people believe AI will negatively affect their lives. The lack of understanding about AI’s decision-making rationale and over-reliance on technology also sparks concerns about tech disrupting peoples’ personal lives. Nearly 27% of U.S. adult citizens think AI will have a ‘very negative or somewhat negative’ effect on their life.
Drastic Effects on U.S. Economy
As AI continues to automate several tasks across industries, people fear it will lead to massive job losses, affecting the U.S. economy badly. 41% of Americans aged 65 and older think AI will have a ‘very negative or somewhat negative’ effect on the U.S. economy.
Rising Digital Divide
A surprising revelation was that nearly 43% of surveyed U.S. adult citizens said they don’t know much about AI, whereas 7% know ‘nothing at all.’ 55% of surveyed Americans aged 65 and above reported having ‘not much’ knowledge about AI. It indicates a rising digital divide where senior citizens may find it challenging to keep up with the rapid technological advancements, feeling left behind.
Huge Disadvantages for Senior Citizens
As Americans continue exploring AI and relevant applications, they reported using text generation and chatbots the most. Virtual personal assistants, facial recognition, image generation, and robots were next on the list. Despite AI applications becoming popular, 49% of Americans aged 45 and above haven’t used any of these tools. As AI becomes more integrated into people’s daily lives, people who don’t use any AI tools can be at a disadvantage in terms of efficiency, access to information, and overall convenience, making them feel isolated and incapable.
Making Life Harder
AI was designed to make peoples’ lives easier, but it seems to have an opposite effect on some Americans. When asked whether AI is making their life easier, 17% of respondents aged 45 and above said it is making their life ‘much harder or somewhat harder.’ 8% of Americans aged 18 to 44 have also reported that AI made their life harder. They fear further AI advancements can fuel their discomfort or inability to keep up with the rapid technological changes, affecting them negatively.
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