• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, June 11, 2024

Consumers are getting more familiar with AI. That doesn’t mean they like it, judging by a new poll from SmartNews, conducted by YouGov.  

Fewer than half of all readers – some 47% – now trust AI for news/information, and only 14% have a great deal of faith in it. However, the total is up from 41% in October 2023 and 46% in January 2024. 

Among those who are not now using AI, 52% say it is not trustworthy. And that has gone up from 48% last October.  

Another 47% have privacy surveillance concerns and 47% are worried about social/news manipulation, and 43% flatly say they don’t need AI, but only 33% have concerns about job loss, although that has risen from 31% in October 2023. 

In general, 71% say they are very familiar with AI on an unaided basis, up from 67% in the last two periods studied. On an aided basis, 62% are familiar. 

Of the consumers polled, 23% use AI almost every day or several times a day, with 7% specifying the latter. But that 23% is up from 21% in January 2024.  

At the same time, people who do not use AI is now down to 30% from 39% in October 2023.  

YouGov surveyed 2,500 smartphone news consumers in April 2024.