Almost none of us use AI tools like ChatGPT, says research – and here’s why
If you’re feeling a little overwhelmed or left behind by ChatGPT and other AI tools, fear not: a major new international survey has found that most of us don’t regularly use generative AI tools.
The study from the Reuters Institute and the University of Oxford (via BBC), which surveyed more than 12,000 people in six countries, seemingly shows how little the AI hype has so far filtered through to real-world use.
Even among those who have used generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Google Gemini or Microsoft Copilot, a large share said they had only used them “once or twice.” Only a small minority (7% in the US, 2% in the UK) say they use the most well-known AI tool, ChatGPT, every day.
A significant portion of respondents across all countries (including 47% in the US and 42% in the UK) had never heard of ChatGPT, a figure that was much higher for other AI apps. But after ChatGPT, the most recognized tools were Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Snapchat My AI, Meta AI, Bing AI and YouChat.
In terms of recognition, generative AI image tools like Midjourney, plus Claude and the xAI’s Grok for X (formerly Twitter) lagged even further behind. But while regular use of generative AI tools is low, the research does provide some interesting insights into what early dabblers are using them for.
Broadly speaking, the use cases were split into two categories; ‘creating media’ and, more worryingly given the issue of AI hallucinations, ‘obtaining information’. In the first case, the most popular answer was simply “play or experiment” (11%), followed by “write an email or letter” (9%) and “create a picture” (9%).
The top two answers in the ‘get information’ category were ‘answer factual questions’ (11%) and ‘get advice’ (10%), both of which were hopefully followed by some confirmation from other sources. Most AI chatbots still come with prominent warnings about their tendency to make mistakes, for example Google says Gemini “could provide inaccurate information or even make offensive statements.”
AI tools are demonstrably better for brainstorming and summarizing, and these were the next most popular uses in the survey – with ‘generating ideas’ mentioned by 9% of respondents and ‘summarizing text’ mentioned by 8% of people.
But while the average person is still in the early stages of experimenting with generative AI tools, most people in the survey are convinced that the tools will eventually have a major impact on our daily lives. When asked if they thought “generative AI will have a major impact on everyday people in the next five years,” 60% of 18-24 year olds thought so, while that figure only dropped to 41% among those aged 55 were old. older.
All studies have their limitations, and this one focuses primarily on standalone generative AI tools rather than examples of the technology baked into existing products – meaning AI is likely to be more widely used than the research suggests.
Still, the wide sample size and geographic scope gives us an interesting snapshot of how the average person views and uses ChatGPT. The answer is that it is still a niche market among consumers, with the report’s lead author, Dr Richard Fletcher, suggesting to the BBC that it shows a ‘mismatch’ between the ‘hype’ around AI and the ‘public interest in it.
Why might that be the case? The reality is that most AI tools, including ChatGPT, have not yet convinced us that they are frictionless or reliable enough to become a standard part of our tech lives. This is why the focus of OpenAI’s new GPT-4o model (branding is another issue) was on a new, lifelike voice assistant, designed to entice us to use it more regularly.
While even technology enthusiasts still have reservations about AI tools, this seems to be largely irrelevant to tech giants. We’re now seeing generative AI baked into consumer products every day, from Google Search’s new AI summaries, to Microsoft’s Copilot coming to our messaging apps, to the rumored AI features of iOS 18 for iPhones.
So while respondents to this survey were “generally optimistic about the use of generative AI in science and healthcare, they were more wary about its use in news and journalism, and concerned about the impact this would have on could have on job security,” said Dr. Fletcher, it appears that AI technology will become a daily part of our lives one way or the other – just not quite yet.