Most people are wary about trusting AI systems and
have low or moderate acceptance of AI: however,
trust and acceptance depend on the AI application
Across countries, three out of five people (61%) are wary
about trusting AI systems, reporting either ambivalence or
an unwillingness to trust. Trust is particularly low in Finland
and Japan, where less than a quarter of people report trusting
AI. In contrast, people in the emerging economies of Brazil,
India, China and South Africa (BICS
2
) have the highest levels
of trust, with the majority of people trusting AI systems.
People have more faith in AI systems to produce accurate
and reliable output and provide helpful services, and are
more sceptical about the safety, security and fairness of AI
systems and the extent to which they uphold privacy rights.
Trust in AI systems is contextual and depends on the
specific application or use case. Of the applications
we examined, people are generally less trusting and
accepting of AI use in human resources (i.e. for aiding
hiring and promotion decisions), and more trusting of
AI use in healthcare (i.e. for aiding medical diagnosis
and treatment) where there is a direct benefit to them.
People are generally more willing to rely on, than share
information with AI systems, particularly recommender
systems (i.e. for personalising news, social media, and
product recommendations) and security applications
(i.e. for aiding public safety and security decisions).
Many people feel ambivalent about the use of AI,
reporting optimism or excitement on the one hand, while
simultaneously reporting worry or fear. Overall, two-thirds
of people feel optimistic about the use of AI, while about
half feel worried. While optimism and excitement are
dominant emotions in many countries, particularly the BICS
countries, fear and worry are dominant emotions for people
in Australia, Canada, France, and Japan, with people in
France the most fearful, worried, and outraged about AI.
People recognise the many benefits of AI, but only
half believe the benefits outweigh the risks
People’s wariness and ambivalence towards AI can be partly
explained by their mixed views of the benefits and risks.
Most people (85%) believe AI results in a range of benefits,
and think that ‘process’ benefits such as improved efficiency,
innovation, effectiveness, resource utilisation and reduced
costs, are greater than the ‘people’ benefits of enhancing
decision-making and improving outcomes for people.
However, on average, only one in two people believe the
benefits of AI outweigh the risks. People in the western
countries and Japan are particularly unconvinced that the
benefits outweigh the risks. In contrast, the majority of
people in the BICS countries and Singapore believe the
benefits outweigh the risks.
People perceive the risks of AI in a similar way
across countries, with cybersecurity rated as the
top risk globally
While there are differences in how the AI benefit-risk
ratio is viewed, there is considerable consistency across
countries in the way the risks of AI are perceived.
Just under three-quarters (73%) of people across the globe
report feeling concerned about the potential risks of AI.
These risks include cybersecurity and privacy breaches,
manipulation and harmful use, loss of jobs and deskilling,
system failure, the erosion of human rights, and inaccurate
or biased outcomes.
In all countries, people rated cybersecurity risks as their
top one or two concerns, and bias as the lowest concern.
Job loss due to automation is also a top concern in India
and South Africa, and system failure ranks as a top concern
in Japan, potentially reflecting their relative heavy
dependence on smart technology.
These findings reinforce the critical importance of protecting
people’s data and privacy to secure and preserve trust, and
supporting global approaches and international standards
for managing and mitigating AI risks across countries.
There is strong global endorsement for the principles
of trustworthy AI: trust is contingent on upholding
and assuring these principles are in place
Our findings reveal strong global public support for the
principles and related practices organisations deploying
AI systems are expected to uphold in order to be trusted.
Each of the Trustworthy AI principles originally proposed by
the European Commission
3
are viewed as highly important
for trust across all 17 countries, with data privacy, security
and governance viewed as most important in all countries.
This demonstrates that people expect organisations
deploying AI systems to uphold high standards of:
– data privacy, security and governance
– technical performance, accuracy and robustness
– fairness, non-discrimination and diversity
– human agency and oversight
– transparency and explainability
– accountability and contestability
– risk and impact mitigation
– AI literacy support
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3TRUST IN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
