Many people don’t trust AI
Artificial intelligence, or AI, has quickly captured the world’s fascination. AI technology has helped drive tremendous innovations in science, medicine, research & development, engineering and the arts, among many other fields. It has the potential to transform economies and societies for generations to come. But the downside to this groundbreaking innovation is a growing fear of distrust and skepticism of a lack of regulation and the potential abuses that AI may bring.
Mark M. Grywacheski
According to a global survey by consulting firm Edelman, just 35% of Americans have trust in AI-related companies. This is down from 43% in 2023. In 2019, the level of trust was reported at 50%. Americans are much more skeptical of AI than the rest of the world. Among the respondents from 28 nations included in their survey, Edelman notes the global average of trust towards AI is at 54%.
Understandably, the rapid rise in the use of AI has created unease among the American population. There have been a number of high-profile incidents where AI has been used to alter photographs, create a biased outcome or to spread disinformation.
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Another concern is that even if AI is free from intentional bias or manipulation, its output can be incomplete or simply inaccurate. In 2023, a New York attorney used AI tool ChatGPT to help him research case law for his client’s personal injury claim. Unfortunately, the AI-created legal brief the attorney submitted to the court referenced six court decisions that simply didn’t exist. Within the legal brief, ChatGPT also included false names and docket numbers and used made-up citations and quotes.
At the heart of this distrust is a lack of confidence in effective regulation and control. According to survey results from MITRE-Harris, just 39% of Americans believe AI is safe and secure. This is down nine points from their November 2023 survey. Moreover, 82% say they are either somewhat or very concerned about AI being used for malicious intent. Some of the top concerns noted by survey respondents were that AI could be used for cyberattacks (80%), identity theft (78%), sale of personal data (76%), lack of accountability for those using AI (76%) and deceptive political ads (70%).
By overwhelming consensus, Americans want accountability. In fact, 85% of Americans believe AI technologies should be regulated to ensure adequate consumer protections. Douglas Robbins, Vice President of Engineering & Prototyping at MITRE stated, “The deep concerns that U.S. adults are expressing about AI are understandable. While the public has started to benefit from new AI capabilities such as ChatGPT, we’ve all watched as chatbots have spread political disinformation and shared dangerous medical advice. And we’ve seen the government announce an investigation into a leading company’s data collection practices.”
For Americans to fully embrace AI requires trust. But according to the latest surveys, that trust just isn’t there yet.
Lisa Edicicco, Senior Editor at CNET, talks with Nicole Zaloumis about the future of generative artificial intelligence in cell phones and how it can evolve the difference out of our everyday use. (04-10-2024)
Millennials are the largest adopters of AI tools—for fun, not work
Millennials are the largest adopters of AI tools—for fun, not work
Artificial intelligence is seeing traction among the largest generational contingent in the U.S. workforce: millennials. And they may not be using it just to boost productivity at work.
Verbit analyzed Morning Consult survey data published in 2024 to illustrate how millennials interact most with emerging AI tools. Morning Consult polling suggests millennials are more active users of AI tools than even Gen Z. Respondents said they are about 20 percentage points more likely to use AI for work tasks when compared with overall user responses. But they also indicated they’re slightly more likely to use it for leisure or creative pursuits than work.
AI is found today not just in the generative AI chatbots like ChatGPT that have invaded workplaces and popular culture. It’s also embedded in the algorithms that power recommendations in music and television streaming apps, financial investment services, productivity software like Microsoft Excel, conversation transcription tools, and those that assist in writing code.
With more than a year of experimentation under their belts since the release of ChatGPT and the wave of AI software that followed, the appeal to millennials of using new AI-infused software for work is nearly on par with using it for entertainment recommendations.
Millennials make up the bulk of the workforce and are AI’s early power users
True artificial intelligence, called artificial general intelligence or AGI, refers to software that displays a level of intelligence indistinguishable from that of a human. Experts agree that true AI is a ways off. However, today’s AI-infused software is still powerful enough to significantly augment workers in many white-collar jobs—and even replace them in some limited cases like customer service functions.
Millennials’ equal propensity to use AI for entertainment or work may speak to the entertainment consumption habits of those aged 28-43. But, it could also be representative of the anxiety the proliferation of new AI tools has caused in the larger workforce.
While not yet capable of AGI, the current capabilities of AI have thus far been strong enough to generate significant apprehensiveness about job displacement. White-collar work was long thought to be immune from early forms of automation, which mainly displaced manual labor jobs with the assistance of robotic technology in warehouses and on factory floors.
And even though polling indicates nearly half of AI’s current users are leveraging the tools at work, other indicators show it hasn’t come without compounded stress.
About two-thirds of workers say they are concerned about AI replacing their jobs, and an equal portion say they fear falling behind in their jobs if they don’t use it at work, according to a 2023 survey developed by Ernst & Young to gauge worker anxiety around business’ adoption of AI.
While the future of AI—and how big of a threat it poses for workers—remains to be seen, a new report from corporate advisory firm Gartner provides an optimistic view running counter to worker anxiety. The 2024 report forecasts that generative AI adoption within corporate workplaces could slow in the coming years as organizations are hit with the reality of the costs it requires to fully train AI models, as well as the looming intellectual property challenges making their way through courts.
Story editing by Nicole Caldwell. Copy editing by Kristen Wegrzyn.
This story originally appeared on Verbit and was produced and distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio.
Mark Grywacheski is an expert in financial markets and economic analysis and is an investment adviser with Quad-Cities Investment Group, Davenport.
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice. Any prices or quotations contained herein are indicative only and do not constitute an offer to buy or sell any securities at any given price. Information has been obtained from sources considered reliable, but we do not guarantee that the material presented is accurate or that it provides a complete description of the securities, markets or developments mentioned. Quad-Cities Investment Group LLC is a registered investment adviser with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission.
