Generative AI To Impact Virtually Every Sector of Society

According to a new survey conducted by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, here are some key findings regarding the public’s perception of generative AI in news across six countries (Argentina, Denmark, France, Japan, the UK, and the USA):

Awareness and Usage: ChatGPT is the most widely recognized generative AI product, with approximately 50% of the online population in the surveyed countries having heard of it.  In terms of use, ChatGPT is by far the most widely used generative AI tool in the six countries surveyed, two or three times more widespread than the next most widely used products, Google Gemini and Microsoft Copilot. Younger people are much more likely to use generative AI products on a regular basis. Averaging across all six countries, 56% of 18–24s say they have used ChatGPT at least once, compared to 16% of those aged 55 and over.

However, frequent use of ChatGPT remains rare. Only 1% of respondents in Japan, 2% in France and the UK, and 7% in the USA use it on a daily basis. Many users who have tried generative AI have used it just once or twice, and it has not yet become a routine part of their internet use. Only 5% have used generative AI to get the latest news, although that rises to 10% in the U.S.

Generative AI Applications: Roughly equal proportions across the six countries say they have used generative AI for:

• Getting information (24%).
• Creating various kinds of media, including text, audio, code, images, and video (28%).
• Getting the latest news (only 5%).

Expectations and Trust: Most of the public expects generative AI to have a large impact on various sectors in the next five years. Sectors with high expectations include news media (66%), science (66%), and political parties (51%). However, there is significant variation in whether people expect different sectors to use AI responsibly: Scientists and healthcare professionals are more trusted to do so.

Social media companies, politicians, and news media are less trusted to use generative AI responsibly.

While there is widespread awareness of generative AI, its regular usage remains limited. People expect generative AI to impact various sectors, but trust in responsible usage varies across different contexts.