Horowitz Michael C, Kahn Lauren, Macdonald Julia, Schneider Jacquelyn
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA USA.
Council on Foreign Relations, Washington, DC USA.
AI Soc. 2023 May 12:1-15. doi: 10.1007/s00146-023-01666-5.
Despite pronouncements about the inevitable diffusion of artificial intelligence and autonomous technologies, in practice, it is human behavior, not technology in a vacuum, that dictates how technology seeps into-and changes-societies. To better understand how human preferences shape technological adoption and the spread of AI-enabled autonomous technologies, we look at representative adult samples of US public opinion in 2018 and 2020 on the use of four types of autonomous technologies: vehicles, surgery, weapons, and cyber defense. By focusing on these four diverse uses of AI-enabled autonomy that span transportation, medicine, and national security, we exploit the inherent variation between these AI-enabled autonomous use cases. We find that those with familiarity and expertise with AI and similar technologies were more likely to support all of the autonomous applications we tested (except weapons) than those with a limited understanding of the technology. Individuals that had already delegated the act of driving using ride-share apps were also more positive about autonomous vehicles. However, familiarity cut both ways; individuals are also less likely to support AI-enabled technologies when applied directly to their life, especially if technology automates tasks they are already familiar with operating. Finally, we find that familiarity plays little role in support for AI-enabled military applications, for which opposition has slightly increased over time.
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00146-023-01666-5.
尽管人们宣称人工智能和自主技术的扩散不可避免，但在实践中，决定技术如何渗透并改变社会的是人类行为，而非孤立的技术。为了更好地理解人类偏好如何塑造技术采纳以及人工智能驱动的自主技术的传播，我们研究了2018年和2020年美国公众舆论中具有代表性的成年人样本对四种自主技术使用情况的看法：车辆、手术、武器和网络防御。通过关注人工智能驱动的自主性在交通、医疗和国家安全等领域的这四种不同应用，我们利用了这些人工智能驱动的自主用例之间的内在差异。我们发现，与对技术了解有限的人相比，熟悉人工智能及类似技术并有相关专业知识的人更有可能支持我们测试的所有自主应用（武器除外）。那些已经通过拼车应用程序委托他人驾驶的人对自动驾驶车辆也更持积极态度。然而，熟悉程度具有两面性；当人工智能技术直接应用于个人生活时，尤其是当技术将他们已经熟悉操作的任务自动化时，个人支持这些技术的可能性也会降低。最后，我们发现熟悉程度对支持人工智能在军事领域的应用影响不大，随着时间的推移，对此类应用的反对略有增加。
在线版本包含可在10.1007/s00146-023-01666-5获取的补充材料。
