盖洛普调查：美国人对 AI 的担忧明显高于世界其他地区

It turns out that people in much of the world outside the West still feel pretty optimistic about the future of AI. The first results from a global survey conducted by Gallup and Microsoft found that AI adoption varies widely around the world and so do people’s attitudes toward the technology. On Tuesday, Gallup published results from the first 37 countries in an AI engagement study that will eventually cover 140 countries. The survey looks at how aware people are of AI, how often they use it, their feelings about the tech, the impact they expect it to have, and how much they trust it. The findings arrive amid a growing debate over whether the AI industry is moving too fast. Executives at major AI companies, including OpenAI and Anthropic, have already called for the industry to slow the pace at which it develops more capable frontier models. These calls follow a recent wave of warnings from researchers inside AI companies about the risks of unfettered AI development, including a non-zero chance that it could lead to human extinction. Despite these dire warnings, the actual use of AI varies significantly depending on where people live. Across the 37 countries surveyed, a median of 81% of adults were aware of AI, but only 43% had actually used it. Singapore led the group in both awareness and adoption, with 96% of adults being aware of AI, 79% having used it, and 46% saying they use it daily. At the other end was Malawi, where only 12% of adults were aware of AI, and just 1% used the tech every day. Additionally, the majority of countries had optimistic views about the future impact of AI in the world. In 25 of the 37 countries surveyed, majorities of AI-aware adults said they expect AI to improve their daily lives. Optimists also outnumbered pessimists in 29 countries when asked whether AI would help their country as a whole. China topped the list, with 93% of AI-aware adults saying AI would mostly help their country, followed by Vietnam at 91%, and Singapore at 77%. Americans, however, weren’t as optimistic. Only 36% of AI-aware adults in the U.S. said AI would mostly help their country, putting Americans near the very bottom of the countries surveyed. Only Bangladesh (34%) and Egypt (35%) were less optimistic. Another interesting finding is that optimism about AI doesn’t necessarily translate into trust in the technology’s current abilities. Across the 37 countries, the median share of AI-aware adults who said they trust AI completely or a lot to provide accurate information was just 36%. Only majorities in Israel, Vietnam, China, and Nigeria expressed that level of trust in AI. In fact, in 35 of the 37 countries surveyed, more people expected AI to help their country than said they trusted it to be accurate. The survey also found another interesting developing dynamic. Positive emotions generally outweighed negative ones in 34 of the 37 countries surveyed. The only exceptions were the United States, Egypt, and Palestine. But in what Gallup dubbed the “Paradox of the Worried West,” seven wealthy Western countries were ranked among the eight top countries that expressed feelings of worry about AI. The U.S. came in first, with 74% of AI-aware adults saying AI makes them feel worried. The Netherlands followed at 67%, Canada at 64%, the United Kingdom at 63%, New Zealand at 61%, and Ireland at 60%. That anxiety was echoed in another recent survey. A POLITICO poll conducted by Public First, published Wednesday, found that roughly half of adults surveyed in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, and Germany said AI is already good enough and supported pausing further development to reduce potential risks. One theory that could play a role in the West’s AI anxiety is that wealthy economies simply have more knowledge workers who are especially vulnerable to losing their jobs in an automated economy. Gallup recently found that surveyed U.S. workers who use AI daily or multiple times a week are more than twice as likely to say their job is very likely to be eliminated within five years. But that still doesn’t explain the optimism in a country like Singapore, where the IMF estimates 77% of its workers are highly exposed to AI. These surveys don’t explain exactly why people in wealthy Western countries are so nervous about AI. But years of headlines about AI taking jobs or going rogue, and data centers that consume massive amounts of electricity and water, certainly have not helped the pro-AI cause. Still, AI companies are trying to address those fears with their own PR campaigns. Business Insider reported this week that OpenAI has been ramping up its use of influencers to promote ChatGPT and show people why the chatbot is “cool” or how it can be used to do “good for the world.”