Contextualizing Opposition and Support for AI

-- Dr. Jason Jeffrey Jones -- @jasonjones_jjj
-- Dr. Steven Sol Skiena -- @stevenskiena

Introduction

In this survey, we asked random, representative samples of 100 Americans questions on the topic of opposition to or support for a technology.

Each item required a response on a seven-point Likert scale of Strongly oppose to Strongly support.

Responses were collected February 24-27, 2021.

This survey is part of the Jones-Skiena Public Opinion of AI Dashboard.

We begin with the results immediately below. See the exact wording of items at the end of this document.

Ranking AI Support Relative to Other Technologies

In the figure below, we rank each technology by our estimate of support in the American adult population. We estimate this value based on our random, representative samples and demographic weighting to match the American adult population.

Figure for How much do you oppose or support the development of technology?

Interpretation

Americans are somewhat supportive of further development of Artificial Intelligence. We have observed moderate support for Artificial Intelligence consistently from September 2020 onward. The results for other technologies put this level of support in perspective. Space exploration enjoys stronger support than AI. Genetic editing of humans is more opposed than supported and scores reliably lower than AI. Support for AI is similar (as one would expect and hope) to support for currently much-discussed applications - viz. computer vision, facial recognition and self-driving cars.

Gender and Support for AI and Other Technologies

In the figure below, we plot the degree to which Male respondents support each technology more than Female respondents. We estimate this value based on our random, representative samples and demographic weighting to match the American adult population.

Figure for Gender Differences in How much do you oppose or support the development of technology?

Interpretation

Males indicate more support for ALL technologies. The point estimates are positive for every technology. Analysis with the current level of statistical power points to a reliable gender effect for the items: colonization of Mars, genetic editing of plants, and artificial intelligence.

Age and Support for AI and Other Technologies

In the figure below, we plot subpopulation estimates of support/opposition for each age range. We estimate this value based on our random, representative samples and demographic weighting to match the American adult population.

Figure for Age Range Estimates in How much do you oppose or support the development of technology?

Interpretation

Generally, younger respondents indicate more support for AI and other technologies than older respondents. This is a reliable effect overall (i.e. collapsing over technologies) and also reliable specifically for artificial intelligence.

Exact Wording of Items and Screenshot of Survey Interface

#	Item	Low Scale Label	High Scale Label
1	How much do you oppose or support the development of virtual reality technology?	Strongly oppose	Strongly support
2	How much do you oppose or support the development of 5G cell phone technology?	Strongly oppose	Strongly support
3	How much do you oppose or support the development of computer vision technology?	Strongly oppose	Strongly support
4	How much do you oppose or support the development of facial recognition technology?	Strongly oppose	Strongly support
5	How much do you oppose or support the development of technology for self-driving cars?	Strongly oppose	Strongly support
6	How much do you oppose or support the development of space exploration technology?	Strongly oppose	Strongly support
7	How much do you oppose or support the development of technology for the colonization of Mars?	Strongly oppose	Strongly support
8	How much do you oppose or support the development of technology for the genetic editing of plants?	Strongly oppose	Strongly support
9	How much do you oppose or support the development of technology for the genetic editing of humans?	Strongly oppose	Strongly support
10	How much do you oppose or support the development of renewable energy technology?	Strongly oppose	Strongly support

Each item was delivered to an independent random sample of at least 100 Americans. In this case, we delivered ten 1-item surveys, not one 10-item survey.

We compare these results to all the weekly survey results up to February 26, 2021 for the item: How much do you oppose or support the development of Artificial Intelligence?

How much do you oppose or support the development of renewable energy technology? — Example Contextualizing Opposition and Support for AI survey item.

These surveys are conducted by Dr. Jason Jeffrey Jones and Dr. Steven Sol Skiena. All raw data is available at this Open Science Foundation repository. Please include proper attribution any time you make use of our work. Read more about the Jones-Skiena Public Opinion of AI Dashboard.