AI, or artificial intelligence, is the name given to computer software that can perform tasks with the appearance and competence of a human mind — in some cases with much more competence than a human.
In recent months, AI programs like ChatGPT, DALL-E, Google’s Bard and others have taken the world by storm, thrilling tech enthusiasts, aiding students and making just about everybody at least a little nervous.
These programs are able to generate paragraphs of college-level text, paintings that can fool art contest judges and even political video ads, and some worry that such capable software is likely to exacerbate the online problems of misinformation, spam and hyper-personalized content streams.
According to data gathered in a new Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics survey, Utahns have their own strong feelings when it comes to the advancement of artificial intelligence and what should, or should not, be done to regulate further developments.
In a statewide poll of registered Utah voters conducted May 22-June 1, 69% of respondents said they were somewhat or very concerned about the increased use of artificial intelligence programming while 28% said they were not very or not at all concerned about the advancements.
But Utahns appear to be of mixed sentiment when it comes to upping the ante on government regulation of AI tools. While a plurality of poll participants, 43%, said they’d like to see regulation increased, 19% said a decrease of AI regulation was in order and 26% said the status quo should be maintained.