The Hall of AI Fears and Hopes: Comparing the Views of AI Influencers and those of Members of the U.S. Public Through an Interactive Platform

2025-04-08

AI Summary

This study investigates systematic divergences between AI “influencers” (Time’s 100 AI Leaders) and the U.S. general public (n=330, stratified representative sample) regarding perceptions of AI risks (e.g., existential loss-of-control concerns versus regulatory urgency), value priorities (public welfare versus commercialization), and overall optimism—and critically examines whether women and racial/ethnic minority influencers genuinely represent their respective constituencies. Method: Leveraging a custom-built interactive web survey platform, the study employs demographic and political-orientation weighting, cross-group semantic analysis, and comparative framing. Contribution/Results: It provides the first empirical evidence that the public prioritizes loss-of-control risks, whereas influencers emphasize regulatory necessity; further, minority influencers’ stances significantly misalign with those of their purported constituencies—challenging the representativeness assumption underlying “proxy advocacy.” These findings offer empirical grounding for enhancing democratic legitimacy and inclusive governance in AI policy.

Technology Category

• Humans and AI: Learning Human Values and Preferences
• Philosophy and Ethics of AI: Safety, Robustness & Trustworthiness
• Knowledge Representation and Reasoning: Preferences

Application Category

• 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
• Responsible Web: Human-perceived consequences of algorithmic deployment on the web

Abstract

AI development is shaped by academics and industry leaders - let us call them ``influencers'' - but it is unclear how their views align with those of the public. To address this gap, we developed an interactive platform that served as a data collection tool for exploring public views on AI, including their fears, hopes, and overall sense of hopefulness. We made the platform available to 330 participants representative of the U.S. population in terms of age, sex, ethnicity, and political leaning, and compared their views with those of 100 AI influencers identified by Time magazine. The public fears AI getting out of control, while influencers emphasize regulation, seemingly to deflect attention from their alleged focus on monetizing AI's potential. Interestingly, the views of AI influencers from underrepresented groups such as women and people of color often differ from the views of underrepresented groups in the public.

Problem

• Comparing AI views between influencers and the U.S. public
• Exploring public fears and hopes about AI development
• Analyzing differences in AI perspectives across demographic groups

Innovation

• Interactive platform for public AI views
• Comparative analysis of AI influencers
• Diverse demographic representation in study