People with less AI literacy often see the technology as ‘magical’ and awe-inspiring.

The rapid spread of artificial intelligence has people wondering: who’s most likely to embrace AI in their daily lives? Many assume it’s the tech-savvy – those who understand how AI works – who are most eager to adopt it.

Surprisingly, our new research (published in the Journal of Marketing) finds the opposite. People with less knowledge about AI are actually more open to using the technology. We call this difference in adoption propensity the “lower literacy-higher receptivity” link.

  • vonbaronhans@midwest.social
    6·
    14 hours ago

    Here’s an important bit from the actual journal article abstract

    This lower literacy-greater receptivity link is not explained by differences in perceptions of AI’s capability, ethicality, or feared impact on humanity. Instead, this link occurs because people with lower AI literacy are more likely to perceive AI as magical and experience feelings of awe in the face of AI’s execution of tasks that seem to require uniquely human attributes.

    It then goes on to say you should target ads for AI to people who don’t know anytime about AI, since they’ll see it as magical and buy in. Kinda gross, if you ask me.

    • jarfil@beehaw.org
      2·
      7 hours ago

      It then goes on to say you should target ads for AI to people who don’t know anytime about AI, since they’ll see it as magical and buy in. Kinda gross, if you ask me.

      That’s marketing summarized: sell feelings, not facts.

      Check most ads for cars, perfumes, airlines, even food. They don’t focus on what they do better, but on how you will feel while using them. Even when they put some actual data here and there, it’s often disguised as part of the “feel better” narrative.