Artificial intelligence (AI) has been a prevalent term over the past year, mainly due to the premiere of ChatGPT. The media buzz, however, has weakened the trust of Poles in AI and their openness to new technologies. According to research conducted by the Digital Poland Foundation, currently, the Poles are very polarized on this issue – 24% see more benefits than risks associated with AI, while 27% have a different opinion. On average, every fourth person supports the suspension of further work on this technology, and 33% support their continuation. Meanwhile, 1/3 of Poles are willing to share information about themselves with AI, while the same percentage of respondents are distrustful of AI and would not share their data with algorithms.
“Last year, ChatGPT OpenAI came out, and it is far from the only representative of generative artificial intelligence currently available, with Google Bard and Midjourney also on the market. This created media buzz and lots of controversies, which resulted in a decrease in the positive attitude towards artificial intelligence,” says Piotr Mieczkowski, Managing Director of the Digital Poland Foundation.
The new, fifth edition of the report “Technology in the Service of Society. Will Poles Become Society 5.0?” – developed for the fifth edition of the Digital Festival by the Digital Poland Foundation, GfK Polonia, and T-Mobile Poland – shows that the media buzz around artificial intelligence after the premiere of ChatGPT, reduced the trust and openness of Poles to new technologies. The percentage of optimists fell from 63% last year to 56% currently.
“55% of Poles know what artificial intelligence is, and 45% do not,” says Piotr Mieczkowski. “We conducted a test by showing them 12 different applications of artificial intelligence, and it turned out that most of them understand artificial intelligence through robotization, not through algorithms, for instance, that suggest a film on some popular streaming platform.”
In total, as many as 88% of Poles have come across the term “artificial intelligence”. Most also declared that they had used at least one AI-based solution, most often mentioned were: text translation (49%), chatbot in customer service (47%), and virtual assistants (41%).
As the report from the Digital Poland Foundation indicates, the main concerns of Poles related to AI concern unknowns in its development (64%) and the collection of too much data by products and services based on artificial intelligence. Four out of 10 Poles also believe that AI will eliminate more jobs than it will create.
“Polish society is much more polarized in opinions on the balance of benefits and risks associated with artificial intelligence. 24% of respondents see more benefits than risks, while 27% have a different opinion, and as many as 35% believe that this balance is evenly distributed,” says Piotr Mieczkowski.
The Polish society is also divided on the issue of further work on this technology – 25% support its suspension, and 33% support its continuation.
“We have room for education because acceptance for artificial intelligence, its development, and applications is higher among people who have knowledge about it. Those who do not have this knowledge are more often afraid of the unknown, approach it with greater skepticism,” says the Managing Director of the Digital Poland Foundation.
Interestingly, Poles also see opportunities in AI, not only threats. Four out of 10 respondents believe that AI can help solve many global and national problems, such as the shortage of doctors and drivers in the labor market, climate change, or the necessary energy transformation. Almost half of Poles also indicated that AI-based solutions are already making their lives easier.
