Expert and Lay Perceptions of Risks Associated with Artificial Intelligence

• In Event: Disturbances, Recreation, and Renovation of Labor: AI, Robots, Platforms, and Algorithms - I

Abstract

This study explores the gaps in expert and lay risk perceptions of Artificial Intelligence (AI). In recent years, AI has leapfrogged in socially beneficial applications in areas such as health, communication, and transportation, while also generating concerns about potential threats related to economic security, political stability and moral/ethical concerns. Understanding the gaps in expert and lay perceptions of AI risks and benefits will illuminate where resistance to AI may emerge and allow for a deeper examination of societal consequences of AI and other new/emergent technologies. In this study we use a mixed methods approach to delineating AI risk perceptions by combining results from a series of in-depth interviews conducted with computer scientists and AI researchers at a public research university in the U.S. Northwest, with public perceptions of risk observed using a survey distributed among a convenience sample of U.S. adults. Preliminary results show convergences in expert-lay risk perceptions in the areas of weaponized AI and AI-caused job loss, and divergences in the areas of moral/ethical concerns of AI.

Authors

• Sam Eli White, University of Idaho

• Dilshani Sarathchandra, University of Idaho