FULL REPORT:
How Americans View AI Tools

by Abel Gustafson, Matthew Goldberg, Carly Wolfer, & Kyle Gustafson
October 2024

Here we provide public access to The XandY Poll’s topline findings regarding Americans’ opinions about AI tools. The full report deck is available for download as a PDF by clicking the button above. Below, we summarize some key findings.

Executive Summary

Our national survey highlights important patterns in public opinion, and also reveals strategic opportunities for companies, advocacy groups, and policymakers. Overall, we find:

  • Only 6 in 10 Americans say chatbots, virtual assistants, and conversational humanoid robots are examples of AI. This may show a moving goalpost effect, where AI is often viewed as whatever we don’t have yet. (p. 3)

  • As expected, familiarity with AI tools decreases with age. However, it is surprisingly unrelated to education. (p. 5)

  • About 1 in 4 Americans use AI tools daily for learning or answering questions. 1 in 7 use them daily for their job. (p. 6)

  • Nearly half of Americans (46%) feel the use of AI tools improves the quality of outcomes, while only 17% think that AI tools decrease quality (17%). The remainder (23%) say they are still unsure. (p. 7)

  • Fewer people trust AI tools for information (43%) than trust doctors (72%) or scientists (67%). But this is still more than those who trust journalists (38%) or government officials (26%). (p. 8)

  • Some specific use cases for AI tools have more public support than opposition. These include using AI to improve personal communication (54% support) and doctors using AI to help diagnose or treat patients (44% support). (p. 9)

  • However, other use cases are opposed more than they are supported. These include employers using AI to evaluate employee performance (42% oppose) and patients using AI for medical advice or a diagnosis (49% oppose). (p. 10)

  • When asked how AI tools will affect society, Americans say there will similar levels of both harms and benefits—both now and in the future. About 2 in 3 say AI tools are at least moderately harmful and moderately beneficial. (p. 11)

  • There is strong support for regulations and policies that control the use of AI tools. For example, support for social media platforms labeling all AI-generated content outnumbers opposition by more than 3 to 1. (p. 12)

  • There is also strong bipartisan support for the federal government limiting the ways that companies
    can develop or use AI.     (p. 13)

 
 

About The XandY Poll

SURVEY METHODOLOGY

The design, data collection, analysis, and reporting of this national survey were performed by XandY, an independent research and strategy firm. Exhaustive details of the scientific methodology of The XandY Poll can be found here. The following briefly summarizes key points of interest.

The survey responses were fielded from November 18 – November 21, 2023 using online recruitment methods to sample adult residents of the United States (N = 1,527). This survey used a nested quota sampling strategy to match U.S. Census proportions of age, income, race and ethnicity, gender, and political party affiliation. To further ensure the insights reported from these data closely resemble the U.S. population, the sample was weighted to match U.S. Census benchmarks. Percentage values are rounded to the nearest whole number.

MARGIN OF ERROR

Proportion statistics regarding the full national sample have an average margin of error of +/- 2 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. The margin of error in subgroups is determined by the subgroup size.

Citation

This report and the insights it contains may be cited as:

Gustafson, A., Goldberg, M., Wolfer, C., & Gustafson, K. (2024). How Americans View AI Tools. XandY. New Haven, CT. Retrieved from https://www.xandyanalytics.com/poll/ai-tools/report