A report published by the Center for the Governance of AI (GovAI), housed in the Future of Humanity Institute, surveys Americans’ attitudes on artificial intelligence. The impact of artificial intelligence technology on society is likely to be large. While the technology industry and governments currently predominate policy conversations on AI, the authors expect the public to become more influential over time. Understanding the public’s views on artificial intelligence will, therefore, be vital to future AI governance. The survey, carried out by Baobao Zhang and Allan Dafoe, is one of the most comprehensive surveys focusing on the American public’s opinions on artificial intelligence to date, including 2000 participants using the survey firm YouGov. 

Key findings from the report include:

1. Americans express mixed support for the development of AI. After reading a short explanation, a substantial minority (41%) somewhat support or strongly support the development of AI, while a smaller minority (22%) somewhat or strongly opposes it.
2. Among 13 AI governance challenges, American prioritize preventing AI-assisted surveillance from violating privacy and civil liberties, preventing AI from being used to spread fake and harmful content online, preventing AI cyber attacks, and protecting data privacy. All challenges were rated as “important” and as over 50% likely to affect a large number of people in the U.S. in the next 10 years by the respondents. 
3. Americans have discernibly different levels of trust in different organizations to develop AI for the best interests of the public. The most trusted are university researchers and the U.S. military; the least trusted is Facebook. There was no actor for which the average respondent had “a fair amount of confidence”.