Poll 61% of Americans say AI threatens humanitys future

News Summary

  • The poll found that over two-thirds of respondents are anxious about the adverse effects of AI, while 61 percent consider it a potential threat to civilization.The online poll, conducted from May 9 to May 15, sampled the opinions of 4,415 US adults.
  • We did not have access to the poll methodology or raw poll results at press time.Along those lines, Reuters quoted Ion Stoica, a UC Berkeley professor and co-founder of AI company Anyscale, pointing out this potential contradiction.
  • Almost all Americans now use "AI" (and software tools once considered "AI") in our everyday lives without much notice or fanfare, and it's unclear if the Reuters/Ipsos poll made any attempt to make that type of distinction for its respondents.
  • Benj Edwards - May 17, 2023 4:39 pm UTC A majority of Americans believe that the rise of artificial intelligence technology could put humanity's future in jeopardy, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll published on Wednesday.
  • "Meanwhile, another group of AI researchers led by Timnit Gebru, Emily M. Bender, and Margaret Mitchell (three authors of a widely cited critical paper on large language models) say that while AI systems are indeed potentially harmful, the prevalent worry about AI-powered apocalypse is misguided.
  • "Another issue with the poll is that AI is a nebulous term that often means different things to different people.
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