People really hate AI, so why can’t they get enough?

Over the summer I talked to the CEO of Springboards, a startup building an LLM that’s designed to come up with a wider variety of responses than its mainstream rivals do. At the start of the call, he said something that’s been stuck in my head since: “We often say that we’re a self-loathing AI…

Résumé

AI's mixed feelings

Public opinion about artificial intelligence (AI) is deeply divided, reflecting a strong love-hate relationship.

While many people express concern or outright dislike for AI, usage of AI tools continues to grow rapidly.

According to the Pew Research Center, more adults in the US believe AI will have a negative impact on them personally and on society than those who expect positive effects.

This pessimism is particularly pronounced among younger people.

Globally, over half of respondents report feeling nervous about AI products and services, as shown in a Stanford University report.

Despite these negative feelings, AI adoption is soaring: ChatGPT reached one billion monthly users in May, while Google DeepMind’s Gemini had 950 million users in July.

Additionally, half of US adults now say they use a chatbot, more than double the number from 2023, and one in four use them daily.

Across 38 OECD countries, over a third of adults have used generative AI tools in the last three months.

This contradiction highlights a paradox where people both dislike and heavily rely on AI.