Poll finds bipartisan agreement on a key issue: regulating AI

In the run-up to the vote in the U S Senate on President Donald Trump s spending and tax bill Republicans scrambled to revise the bill to win encouragement of wavering GOP senators A provision included in the original bill was a -year moratorium on any state law that sought to regulate artificial intelligence The provision denied access to million in federal funding for broadband internet and AI infrastructure projects for any state that passed any such law The inclusion of the AI regulation moratorium was widely viewed as a win for AI firms that had expressed fears that states passing regulations on AI would hamper the enhancement of the system However various federal and state agents from both parties including state attorneys general state legislators and Republican governors publicly opposed the measure In the last hours before the passage of the bill the Senate struck down the provision by a resounding - vote In an era defined by partisan divides on issues such as immigration vitality care social welfare gender equality race relations and gun control why are so various Republican and Democratic political leaders on the same page on the issue of AI regulation Whatever motivated lawmakers to permit AI regulation our current poll shows that they are aligned with the majority of Americans who view AI with trepidation skepticism and fear and who want the emerging system regulated Bipartisan sentiments We are political scientists who use polls to evaluation partisan polarization in the United States as well as the areas of agreement that bridge the divide that has come to define U S politics In April we fielded a nationally representative poll that sought to capture what Americans think about AI including what they think AI will mean for the economic system and society going forward The society is generally pessimistic We revealed that of Americans explained they believe AI will increase the spread of false information Fifty-six percent of Americans worry AI will threaten the future of humanity Fewer than in Americans reported us AI will make them more productive make people less lonely or improve the business activity While Americans tend to be deeply divided along partisan lines on majority issues the apprehension regarding AI s impact on the future appears to be relatively consistent across Republicans and Democrats For example only of Republicans and of Democrats disclosed they believe that artificial intelligence will make people less lonely Respondents across the parties are in lockstep when it comes to their views on whether AI will make them personally more productive with only both Republicans and Democrats agreeing And of Democrats and Republicans noted they believe AI will threaten the future of humanity On the question of whether artificial intelligence should be strictly regulated by the establishment we located that close to in Americans agree with this sentiment Given the partisan differences in aid for governmental regulation of business we expected to find evidence of a partisan divide on this question However our content finds that Democrats and Republicans are of one mind on AI regulation with majorities of both Democrats and Republicans supporting strict AI regulation When we take into account demographic and political characteristics such as race educational attainment gender identity income ideology and age we again find that partisan identity has no essential impact on opinion regarding the regulation of AI State of anxiety In the years ahead the debate over AI and the authorities s role in regulating it is likely to intensify on both the state and federal levels As each day seems to bring new advances in AI s capability and reach the future is shaping up to be one in which human beings coexist and hopefully flourish alongside AI This new reality has made the American community both Democrats and Republicans justifiably nervous and our polling captures this widespread trepidation Lawmakers and system leaders alike could address this anxiety by better communicating the pitfalls and feasible of AI and take seriously the concerns of the constituents After all the society is not alone in its trepidation A large number of experts in the field also have substantial worries about the future of AI One of the fundamental political questions moving forward then will be to what degree regulators put guardrails on this emerging and transformative system in order to protect Americans from AI s negative consequences This article was authored by Adam Eichen Ph D candidate in political science UMass Amherst Alexancer Theodoridi associate professor of political science UMass Amherst Sara M Kirschbaum postdoctoral fellow and Lecturer of political science UMass Amherst and Tatishe Nteta provost professor of political science and director of the UMass Amherst Poll UMass Amherst Republished from The Conversation The post Poll finds bipartisan agreement on a key issue regulating AI appeared first on 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