While the debate over the ethics of using artificial intelligence continues to intensify across industries, UK consumers seem to be increasingly in favor of the technology, according to new research. Nearly three-quarters of UK residents say they trust AI to provide written content, health tips, relationship advice and more.
Artificial intelligence is the field that combines computer science and datasets to enable machines to perform problem solving. The mainstream discussion of this has clearly shifted to sensational headlines about future “robot rebellion” in the media, but for now at least, the most obvious threat machines pose is to people’s jobs. The hype around generative AI is being harnessed by bosses looking to push staff salary demands down, especially in creative departments, due to AI’s ability to take and paraphrase old information and quickly create “new” content. is increasing. of the price.
New research from Capgemini shows that applications of generative AI are also being embraced by many consumers, whether they’re writing academic papers or work reports, searching for information or seeking life advice. using this technology. An overwhelming 74% of UK consumers believe they trust AI to take on these tasks, compared with the global average of 73%, according to a Capgemini survey. surpassed.
This is a notable shift from KPMG’s recent findings, in which the Big Four found that most consumers are only comfortable using AI in functions where AI is already associated, such as Alexa-style voice assistants. suggesting that it could be done. On the other hand, more than one-fifth of his consumers think they will never use it for anything at all.
But a Capgemini survey of 10,000 people in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, the US and the UK found that most consumers are open to AI. was much more adventurous. how to use. At the moment, only 10% of respondents said they had never used an AI tool.
Meanwhile, the majority of consumers were already using AI creatively. 52% said they have used models such as Chat GPT to create emails, essays, stories and poems. This put us far ahead of other uses of AI. The next most common use is “creative brainstorming,” where AI is used to generate prompts that stimulate human creativity, with 23% providing information on topics such as science, history, business, and technology. used to find Further down the list, only 16% use it to fine-tune content and 11% use it to analyze text to better understand it. .
This could be a sign that initially cautious consumers are going too far in the other direction. It suggests that they are simply content to let the AI do all the work and take the AI’s work at face value. For an essay, for example, this could mean, in the best case scenario, publishing accurate content without understanding it, and in the worst case, publishing inaccurate information without knowing it. I mean As such, 49% of consumers said they were not concerned that AI could generate “fake news” for their content, and that the products generated were not used by artists whose work was fed to AI, Only 33% were concerned about not recognizing the contributions of authors and experts. algorithm.
The problem with this is that while it is arguable that this is a form of intellectual property theft, many AI users are uncritical about where their information comes from. Generated text allows circumvention of sources, making it increasingly difficult to verify its authenticity or hold inaccurate sources accountable. According to Capgemini, this is something that consumers and businesses alike should keep in mind as they rush to introduce AI technology into their daily lives.
“Generative AI has significant awareness and very high adoption rates among consumers around the world, but understanding of how this technology works and the risks it entails is still very low. ” said Niraj Palihar, Global CEO of Insights and Data. Capgemini’s business line. “Generative AI itself is not ‘intelligent’. Intelligence comes from the human experts these tools assist and support. So, like any AI, the key to its success is the safeguards humans build around it to ensure the quality of its output. “
