Most Americans polled in a Reuters/Ipsos poll released Wednesday said the rapid growth of artificial intelligence technology could jeopardize the future of humanity.
More than two-thirds of Americans are concerned about the harmful effects of AI, with 61 believing it could threaten civilization. Ever since OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot became the fastest growing application of all time, AI has surged to the forefront of public debate as it is widely integrated into everyday life. ChatGPT has kicked off the AI arms race, with tech giants such as Microsoft and Google vying to outperform each other in AI achievements.
Lawmakers and AI companies are also concerned, with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman testifying before the U.S. Congress on Tuesday, expressing concern about the technology’s potential abuse and calling for regulation. “There’s no way to put this genie in a bottle. We’re seeing an explosion of this globally,” said one of the many lawmakers questioning how best to regulate AI at the Senate Committee on AI Use on Tuesday. said Senator Cory Booker.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll found that Americans are three times more likely to foresee a negative impact from AI than those who do not.
The data shows that 61 percent of respondents believe AI poses a risk to humanity, but only 22 percent disagree and 17 percent are still unsure.
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Those who voted for Donald Trump in 2020 expressed a higher level of concern. Seventy percent of Trump supporters and 60 percent of Joe Biden supporters agreed that AI could threaten humanity.
In terms of religious beliefs, evangelical Christians were more likely to “strongly agree” that AI poses a risk to humanity, with 32% compared to 24% of non-evangelical Christians. “This is a very large number of Americans,” said Landon Klein, director of U.S. policy at the Future of Life Institute, a group that jointly submitted an open letter with Tesla CEO Elon Musk. We are telling people to worry about the negative impact of AI.” Demands a six-month suspension of AI research. “We equate the present to the beginning of the nuclear age and benefit from public awareness consistent with the need to take action.”
Americans are concerned about AI, but crime and the economy rank high on the list of issues on the table, with 77% supporting more police funding to fight crime and 82% risking a recession. Are concerned.
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Industry insiders said the public needs to understand more about the benefits of AI.
“The concerns are very legitimate, but I think what’s generally lacking in dialogue is why we do things like this in the first place.” “AI will improve people’s quality of life and make them more effective and efficient,” Sebastian Thrun said.
Ion Stoika, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley and co-founder of the AI company Anyscale, said aggressive applications of AI, such as innovative drug discovery, are less visible than ChatGPT.
“Americans may not realize how pervasive AI is already in their daily lives, whether at home or at work,” he said.
The online poll was conducted from May 9th to May 15th, among 4,415 adults in the United States. Confidence intervals, a measure of precision, are plus or minus two percentage points.
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