Reduced AI Acceptance After the Generative AI Boom: Evidence From a Two-Wave Survey Study

2025-10-27

AI Summary

This study examines how the emergence of generative AI (GenAI) affects public acceptance of AI and social equity. Method: Leveraging two waves of nationally representative longitudinal survey data—collected before and after ChatGPT’s release—and employing controlled sociodemographic covariates with rigorous statistical modeling, we analyze shifts in attitudes toward AI deployment and decision-making authority. Contribution/Results: Contrary to technological optimism, GenAI diffusion correlates with a significant decline in AI acceptance: the proportion deeming AI “completely unacceptable” rose from 23% to 30%, while support for exclusively human decision-making increased from 18% to 26%. Moreover, disparities in acceptance widened markedly across education level, language proficiency, and gender. This study provides the first empirical evidence that GenAI adoption may erode public trust and exacerbate structural inequities—challenging prevailing narratives of automatic societal benefit—and offers critical insights for equitable AI governance and inclusive system design.

Technology Category

• Philosophy and Ethics of AI: Bias, Fairness & Equity
• Humans and AI: Learning Human Values and Preferences
• Natural Language Processing: Ethics — Bias, Fairness, Transparency & Privacy

Application Category

• Social Networks and Social Media: Generative AI / large language models and their impact on social systems
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Trust and reliance of crowd workers and data experts on GenAI
• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Accountability, Transparency, and Ethics for personalization

Abstract

The rapid adoption of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) technologies has led many organizations to integrate AI into their products and services, often without considering user preferences. Yet, public attitudes toward AI use, especially in impactful decision-making scenarios, are underexplored. Using a large-scale two-wave survey study (n_wave1=1514, n_wave2=1488) representative of the Swiss population, we examine shifts in public attitudes toward AI before and after the launch of ChatGPT. We find that the GenAI boom is significantly associated with reduced public acceptance of AI (see Figure 1) and increased demand for human oversight in various decision-making contexts. The proportion of respondents finding AI "not acceptable at all" increased from 23% to 30%, while support for human-only decision-making rose from 18% to 26%. These shifts have amplified existing social inequalities in terms of widened educational, linguistic, and gender gaps post-boom. Our findings challenge industry assumptions about public readiness for AI deployment and highlight the critical importance of aligning technological development with evolving public preferences.

Problem

• Examining public attitude shifts toward AI acceptance after ChatGPT launch
• Investigating increased demand for human oversight in AI decision-making
• Analyzing how GenAI boom amplified social inequalities across demographics

Innovation

• Two-wave survey study tracks AI acceptance changes
• Analyzes public attitudes before and after ChatGPT launch
• Measures demand for human oversight in decision-making