Public Perception of AI: Sentiment and Opportunity

TL;DR

This study surveys 10,000 people across ten countries to understand global public perceptions of AI, revealing nuanced views on regulation, societal impact, and the potential for AI to improve lives.

Contribution

It provides comprehensive, cross-cultural insights into public attitudes towards AI, highlighting perceptions of regulation, societal change, and AI's role in problem solving.

Findings

Equal belief in AI's transformative potential and need for regulation.

Public favors companies using AI for social good and innovation.

AI is viewed mainly as a tool for solving societal problems.

Abstract

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) increasingly influences various aspects of society, there is growing public interest in its potential benefits and risks. In this paper we present results of public perception of AI from a survey conducted with 10,000 respondents spanning ten countries in four continents around the world. The results show that currently an equal percentage of respondents who believe AI will change the world as we know it, also believe AI needs to be heavily regulated. However, our findings also indicate that despite the general sentiment among the global public that AI will replace workers, if a company were to use AI to innovate to improve lives, the public would be more likely to think highly of the company, purchase from them and even be interested in a job in that company. Our results further reveal that the global public largely views AI as a tool for problem solving. These nuanced results underscore the importance of AI directed towards challenges that the public would like science and technology-based innovations to address. We draw on a multi-year 3M study of public perception of science to provide further context on what the public perceives as important problems to be solved.