Public discourse comprises many different ideas and opinions about artificial intelligence. However, decision-makers in politics, business and society should be aware of what people think with regard to shaping technology in such a way that it is compatible with society and democracy. The Opinion Monitor Artificial Intelligence will provide a long-term and reliable picture of the public debate.
In discussions about digitization and artificial intelligence (AI), individual observations of public opinion and opinion published in the mass media are often used to strengthen one’s own position. Though, it is often overlooked that these references are usually not based on systematic and continuous observation of the discourse. Moreover, a look at various demoscopic studies shows that insights into attitudes towards AI are by no means uniform. For example, the Eurobarometer (2017) points to a rather positive attitude of the population towards AI technologies, and a bitkom survey (2018) shows that the majority of respondents believe that AI offers opportunities in innovation. Elsewhere, however, risk perceptions predominate, both in general and in relation to specific fields of application (YouGov 2018).
