It may come as a surprise for world leaders discussing artificial intelligence at the United Nations General Assembly in New York this week, but a large majority of people surveyed across the globe for a new Gallup poll said they felt mostly positive about A.I.
Gallup, an opinion research organization, interviewed at least 1,000 people in each of 37 countries and found that in 34, positive emotions toward A.I. outweighed negative feelings. An average of 72 percent of respondents said they felt curious, happy or excited about A.I., compared with 41 percent who felt worried, sad or angry.
It was among the most comprehensive portraits of varied emotional responses to the new technology yet, and the margins between hope and fear were wide.
In China and Vietnam, more than 90 percent of people polled said they believed that A.I. would mostly make daily life better. In Nigeria, Israel and Singapore, more than two-thirds of the respondents agreed.
But in the United States, only 36 percent saw A.I. as mostly helpful rather than harmful. The seven Western high-income countries that Gallup surveyed (the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand, Malta and the Netherlands) dominated its ranking of the most concerned, with the United States at the top.
Gallup plans to eventually include A.I. surveys in 140 countries, but this early snapshot — conducted with Microsoft, featuring a margin of error of 2.2 percent and 4.9 percentage points — appeared to show a clear divide.
“The most consistent finding that is emerging is that these cluster of attitudes that we see in Western countries is pretty unique,” said Pablo Diego-Rosell, a senior scientist at Gallup. The “worried West,” he added, tends to feature high adoption, high concern and a belief that while A.I. might be good for the individual, it was less likely to be positive for their country.
Across 37 nations surveyed, the median percentage who have never tried A.I. is still relatively high — 57 percent. In the U.S., it’s 32 percent. But intense use is no predictor of dismay.
Some countries where survey respondents said they felt positively toward A.I. were also rapid adopters. Singapore, China and Israel all have a higher proportion of daily users than the United States. Others have lower rates of use: In Vietnam, only 12 percent of those surveyed use A.I. daily compared to 23 percent in the U.S.
Husan Chahal, an A.I. risk researcher for the National Bureau of Asian Research, said that many governments, especially in Asia, frequently framed the technology first and foremost as a tool for economic development, and were eager to drive A.I. uptake.
“That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re unconcerned about catastrophic risks,” she said. “But those risks may not be as prominent in their policy priorities.”
In almost every country polled by Gallup, the heaviest A.I. users said they were the least anxious about it. For example, 68 percent of daily A.I. users in the United States were worried about the technology compared with 80 percent of less frequent users, and 74 percent of those who had never used A.I.
Edward Lim, Vietnam country director for NUS Enterprise and BLOCK71, a start-up accelerator connected to the National University of Singapore, said that views of A.I. were evolving rapidly and in different directions.
He suggested that concerns were increasing in Singapore as the news of A.I. agents going rogue continued to spread, but in Vietnam, where human talent remains cost-competitive with A.I. agents, there is mostly excitement.
“What strikes me is how open people in Vietnam are to trying new things,” he said, adding, “The poll reflects what I see on the ground.”
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