Public Opinion Toward Artificial Intelligence
Friday, June 2, 2023 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM CST
Dr. Baobao Zhang, Syracuse University, will present on public opinion of artificial intelligence.
About the event
Understanding citizens’ and consumers’ attitudes toward AI is important from a normative standpoint because the public is a major stakeholder in shaping the future of the technology and should have a voice in policy discussions. Furthermore, the research could help anticipate future political and consumer behavior. Survey data worldwide show that the public is increasingly aware of AI; however, they—unlike AI researchers—tend to anthropomorphize AI. Demographic differences correlate with trust in AI in general: those living in East Asia have higher levels of trust in AI, while women and those of lower socioeconomic status across different regions have lower levels of trust. Surveys that focus on particular AI applications, including facial recognition technology, personalization algorithms, lethal autonomous weapons, and workplace automation, add complexity to this research topic. This presentation concludes by recommending four new topics for future studies: (1) institutional trust in actors building and deploying AI systems, (2) the impact of knowledge and experience on attitudes toward AI, (3) heterogeneity in attitudes toward AI, and (4) the relationship between attitudes and behavior.
In addition, the presentation will include some initial survey results from Dr. Zhang's team based on their survey of the public in the US, Europe, and China: https://www.governance.ai/post/increasing-consensus-ai-requires-careful-management
Dr. Baobao Zhang is an assistant professor of Political Science at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. She is also a CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar and a research affiliate with the Centre for the Governance of AI.
Her current research focuses on trust in digital technology and the governance of artificial intelligence (AI). She studies (1) public and elite opinion toward AI, (2) how the American welfare state could adapt to the increasing automation of labor, and (3) attitudes toward Covid-19 surveillance technology. Her previous research covered a wide range of topics, including the politics of the U.S. welfare state, attitudes towards climate change, and survey methodology.
She graduated with a PhD in political science (2020) and an MA in statistics (2015) from Yale University. In 2020-2021, she worked as a Klarman Postdoctoral Fellow in the Cornell Society of Fellows. In 2019-2020, she worked as a postdoctoral fellow in MIT’s Political Science Department and a fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University.
Bio
Baobao Zhang joins the political science department in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs as a tenure-track assistant professor of political Science in fall 2021. She is also an affiliate with Maxwell’s Autonomous Systems Policy Institute. At Syracuse University, Zhang will teach classes in American politics, technology and public policy and quantitative analysis, including governance and ethics of artificial intelligence (AI).
Prior to joining Syracuse University, Zhang was a Klarman Postdoctoral Fellow at Cornell University (2020-2021) and a postdoctoral associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2019-2020). She served as a research affiliate with Centre for the Governance of AI, University of Oxford (2018-2020) and a fellow with the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University (2019-2020). She was named a CIFAR Azireli Global Scholar in 2021 and received a National Science Graduate Research Fellowship in 2014.
Her current research focuses on trust in digital technology and the governance of artificial intelligence (AI). She studies (1) public and elite opinion toward AI, (2) how the American welfare state could adapt to the increasing automation of labor, and (3) attitudes toward COVID-19 surveillance technology. Her previous research covered a wide range of topics, including the politics of the U.S. welfare state, attitudes towards climate change, and survey methodology. She is currently co-editing the "Oxford Handbook of AI Governance," under contract with Oxford University Press.
Zhang earned a Ph.D. in 2020, a M.A. in 2015 and a B.A. in 2013, all from from Yale University. She also was an exchange scholar with Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2018-2019 and 2015-2016 and Nuffield College, University of Oxford 2017-2018.