Most U.S. adults don't believe benefits of AI outweigh the risks, new survey finds

The majority of U.S. adults don't understand the technology well enough to make an informed decision on the matter.

Most adult Americans don't know the difference between a PC Tower and Monitor, or a Modem and a PC, or an ethernet cable and a usb cable.

Most of the U.S. adults also don't understand what AI is in the slightest. What do the opinions of people who are not in the slightest educated on the matter affect lol.

The problem is that there is no real discussion about what to do with AI.

It's being allowed to be developed without much of any restrictions and that's what's dangerous about it.

Like how some places are starting to use AI to profile the public Minority Report style.

The past decade has done an excellent job of making people cynical about any new technology. I find looking at what crypto bros are currently interested in as a good canary for what I should be suspicious of.

I work with AI and don’t necessarily see it as “dangerous”. CEOs and other greed-chasing assholes are the real danger. They’re going to do everything they can to keep filling human roles with AI so that they can maximize profits. That’s the real danger. That and AI writing eventually permeating and enshittifying everything.

A hammer isn’t dangerous on its own, but becomes a weapon in the hands of a psychopath.

At first I was all on board for artificial intelligence and spite of being told how dangerous it was, now I feel the technology has no practical application aside from providing a way to get a lot of sloppy half assed and heavily plagiarized work done, because anything is better than paying people an honest wage for honest work.

"Can't we just make other humans from lower socioeconomic classes toil their whole lives, instead?"

The real risk of AI/automation is if we fail to adapt our society to it. It could free us from toil forever but we need to make sure the benefits of an automated society are spread somewhat evenly and not just among the robot-owning classes. Otherwise, consumers won't be able to afford that which the robots produce, markets will dry up, and global capitalism will stop functioning.

My opinion - current state of AI is nothing special compared to what it can be. And when it will be close to all it can be, it will be used (as it always happens) to generate even more money and no equality. Movie "Elysium" comes to mind.

Most US adults couldnt tell you what LLM stands for, nevermind tell you how stable diffusion works. So theres not much point in asking them as they wont understand the benefits and the risks

Some of those adults voted for Trump. Unfortunately cannot trust any of them. So

The problem is that I’m pretty sure that whatever benefits AI brings, they are not going to trickle down to people like me. After all, all AI investments are coming from the digital land lords and are designed to keep their rent seeking companies in the saddle for at least another generation.

However, the drawbacks certainly are headed my way.

So even if I’m optimistic about the possible use of AI, I’m not optimistic about this particular stand of the future we’re headed toward.

The truly terrifying thing about AI isn't really the Skynet fears... (it's fairly easy to keep humans in the loop regarding nuclear weapons).

And it's not world domination (an AI programmed to govern with a sense of egalitarianism would be better than any president we've had in living memory).

No. What keeps me up at night is thinking about what AI means for my kids and grandkids, if it works perfectly and doesn't go rogue.

WITHIN 20 years, AI will be able to write funnier jokes, more beautiful prose, make better art, write better books, do better research, and generally outperform all humans on all tasks.

This chills me to my core.

Because, then... Why will we exist? What is the point of humanity when we are obsolete in every way that made us amazing?

What will my kids and grandkids do with their lives? Will they be able to find ANY meaning?

AI will cure diseases, solve problems we can't begin to understand, expand our lifespan and our quality of life... But the price we pay is an existence without the possibility of accomplishments and progress. Nothing we can create will ever begin to match these AIs. And they will be evolving at an exponential rate... They will leave us in the dust, and then they will become so advanced that we can't begin to comprehend what they are.

If we're lucky we will be their well-cared-for pets. But what kind of existence is that?

Most adults, this population included, don't have a clue or understand.

The general public don't understand what they're talking about so it's not worth asking them.

What is the point in surveys like this, we don't operate on direct democracy so there's literally no value in these things except to stir the pot.

Generally, people are wary of disruptive technology. While this technology has potential to displace a plethora of jobs for the sake of increased productivity, companies won’t be able to move product if unemployment skyrockets.

Regardless of what people think, the Pandora’s box of AI is opened and now the only way forward is to adapt.

A majority of U.S. adults don't belive jack shit about the benefits of most things.

I'm more angry I can't use a co-pilot at work yet

I ask chat gpt for really specific things like creating template language and writing short powershell scripts I could write but don't have the time/don't care about. It is useful but not revolutionary or risky for me.

I don't understand why people don't have the fantasy imagine all the possibilities in which AI can help us progress from the absolutely dismal state of the world we live in currently. Yes there are risks but I just want technology to progress desperately even if I myself live somewhat comfortably for now.

Most US adults never aspire to create anything and thus a tool that is useful for creating is of no use to them.

Most US adults don't even know what AI is and it's a miracle they don't drown in their own droll... This sort of "news" is beyond irrelevant.

More likely they just don't belive technofeudalism is a good thing. In US it comes in single package with AI.

Most US adults aren't educated either.

I was thinking about this the other day. But has no one else forgotten the Terminator movies? At least the first two, I never saw any others.

AI DESTROYS THE WORLD!

That's all I ever needed. And don't get me wrong, I always thank the digital personal assistants whenever they do something for me. But get the fuck out of here if you think I'll actively participate in AI.

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AI benefits the masses at the expense of the few. It is just that few is becoming many. When it hits TOO MANY, the masses will become just the 1%.