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The Impact of Artificial Intelligence: A New Age of Enlightenment? A New Threat to Humanity?
Public opinion survey: Americans fear the impact of AI on privacy, jobs, relationships, politics and elections
Expert views: AI advances by 2040 will force us to reimagine what it means to be human and to restructure or replace current institutions
Technology experts and the U.S. public share serious concerns about the future of privacy, job opportunities, politics and elections, civility and other aspects of life, according to a new report from Elon University outlining their views about the future impact of artificial intelligence (AI).
This report, “The Impact of Artificial Intelligence by 2040,” finds both the general public and experts believe enormous upheavals are on the horizon as AI spreads. Many experts go so far as to say that we will have to reimagine what it means to be human and that societies must restructure, reinvent or replace existing institutions and systems. At the same time, they embrace the idea that important benefits will also result from the spread of AI.
This is the first report released by Elon’s expanded Imagining the Digital Future Center under the leadership of Lee Rainie, who joined the university after a 24-year career directing Pew Research Center’s Internet and Technology research. The Center works to discover and broadly share a diverse range of opinions, ideas and original research about the impact of digital change, informing important conversations and policy formation.
The new study combines a national public opinion survey with a canvassing of hundreds of technology experts that has been the hallmark of the 48 previous research reports produced by Elon in partnership with Pew Research Center since 2004.
“This special two-pronged research into public and elite opinion shows how disruptive many think AI will be to essential dimensions of life,” Rainie said. “Both groups expressed concerns over the future of privacy, wealth inequalities, politics and elections, employment opportunities, the level of civility in society and personal relationships with others. At the same time, there are more hopeful views about AI making life easier, more efficient and safer in some important respects. Virtually everyone agrees this is a pivotal moment for how the future plays out with AI.”
Rainie noted that the rapid development of ChatGPT and other AI tools has raised public awareness and caused considerable worry as well as great optimism about the ways AI tools may make life easier, more efficient and potentially safer.
The separate canvassing of more than 300 technology experts provided an opportunity for technology developers, business and policy leaders, researchers, analysts and academics to contribute essays about the potential coming impact of AI. Some envision a future when economies and work are overhauled, people have personal digital assistants and diminished skills in making their own choices, when AI-created deepfakes and disinformation create alternate definitions of “truth,” and when there are major advances in medical diagnostics and treatment.
