Can Artificial Intelligence be dangerous?

New research reveals almost 3 million people think so  

• It has been revealed that 2.9 million negative conversations were sparked around AI globally. 
• The biggest search queries included “Can artificial intelligence be dangerous?” and “Will artificial intelligence take over the world?” 
• Gen Z females were the most interested in AI with 18% of conversations made by 18–24-year-old females with mostly positive sentiment on the subject. 

Found yourself asking Siri for directions, or playing around with the filters on Instagram? Artificial intelligence is everywhere in our day to day lives. But, with the world’s media filled with dystopian tales of computer intelligence taking over humanity; what does the public really think of AI? 

Using data¹ from Google Search Trends, Linkfluence, and Answer the Public, Ebuyer has revealed that over 2.9 million negative posts were generated on AI over the past year! 

So, does the public really trust AI? And why exactly do people have such a negative perception of the technology that continues to make our lives so much easier? 

The USA has the largest interest in AI with over 12 million posts over the past year! 

As the home of Silicon Valley, it’s no surprise that the US has the most to say about AI with over 12 million conversations over the year. So, what really got Americans talking? 

Taking a majority negative sentiment, American’s biggest topic was around Technology with subjects such as natural language processing with 130,000 conversations and machine learning with 127,000 conversations. US politics and AI were also a big topic of conversation with Donald Trump spiking 230,000 conversations.  

India and the UK came in second and third with 2.36 million and 1.27 million conversations generated respectively. On the other hand, these countries both had a majority positive sentiment towards AI with the UK sparking 14% positive conversations. 

Can Artificial Intelligence be dangerous? Over 2.9 million people worldwide think so 

In a world where we can unlock our phones through facial recognition or talk to a Chatbot about our lost parcel – it’s surprising that people are so sceptical of AI. In fact, over 2.9 million negative conversations were started about the topic!  

However, looking into Answer the Public to discover the most searched queries, it’s clear that the public is slightly cynical about the safety of AI. The most asked questions included “Can Artificial Intelligence be dangerous?” and “Will Artificial Intelligence take over the world?” highlighting that AI takeover is a real anxiety. 

In fact, during the pandemic, Google Search Trends showed that the ‘Risks of Artificial Intelligence in healthcare’ had increased by 950%!  

17% of all conversations on AI came from Gen Z females. 

As the generation that has grown up with technology, it’s no surprise that Gen Z is the group talking about AI the most; 30% of the conversations came from 18–24-year-olds. The baby boomers come in a close second with 20% of the conversations generated by 55–64-year-olds. 

Female Gen Z talk about AI the most with a whopping 17% of conversations sparked, however, they take a majority positive sentiment of 14%. This is no surprise considering a life without the internet is unimaginable to Gen Z. 

Surprisingly millennials and baby boomers are the most overwhelmingly negative towards Artificial Intelligence. Over the past year, millennials generated 25% of negative posts in comparison to 12% positive, whilst baby boomers had a ratio of 27% positive to 9% negative.