Do People Underestimate Their Encounters With AI?

Over the past few years, artificial intelligence has not only rapidly improved but also become deeply ingrained in people’s everyday lives. Whether it’s taking a photo with a smartphone, listening to music on Spotify or scrolling through social media – there are countless examples of day-to-day activities that are now powered or enhanced by AI. In many of these examples, AI is working behind the scenes, though, which is why people often don’t realize that they’re dealing with the technology.

This would explain the large disconnect between how often Americans think they interact with artificial intelligence and how often actual AI experts think people in the U.S. interact with the nascent technology. According to surveys conducted by the Pew Research Center, only 27 percent of U.S. adults think that they engage with AI almost constantly or several times day, while 79 percent of AI experts think Americans do.

While AI experts, in this case individuals whose work or research relates to AI and who were authors or presenters at an AI-related conference in 2023 or 2024, understand the variety of tasks that involve machine learning or other AI applications, the general public tends to underestimate the implementation of AI in day-to-day activities. Instead, many think that AI is synonymous with tools like ChatGPT, which are perhaps the most obvious use of artificial intelligence – at least from a consumer perspective.

As the technology continues to evolve, it will be important to improve the understanding of what AI actually is and how it’s applied. Only if people know what they’re dealing with, they’ll be able to make informed decisions and to consciously assess the risks and benefits of using AI-powered services.