Americans are somewhat more troubled than thrilled over AI’s mounting presence in modern life. But the collective outlook is a rich blend of both.

So shows a new survey of 2,000 U.S. adults conducted by Vox Media and its subsidiary outlet The Verge. Survey questions aimed at taking consumers’ temperature on thoughts, feelings and fears about AI. The research firm The Circus had a hand in the project. Here are five highlights from the findings.

1. Mixed emotions prevail over AI’s quickening pace of progress.   

• 29% of survey respondents feel anxious about AI, while
• 21% are excited,
• 32% are both, and
• 18% are neither.

On some key specific points, more respondents lean negative than positive. Well upwards of 60% anticipate AI-caused job losses (63%), privacy threats (68%) and misuse by governments and businesses (67%). By comparison, just half look forward to new medical treatments (51%) and economic empowerment (51%).

2. Support for regulation of AI is strong.

• 78% want clear labeling of AI involvement in digital content created with AI.
• 76% believe regulations and laws need to be enacted around AI development.
• 76% feel AI training data should be fact-checked.
• 76% would make it illegal to create video or audio deep fakes without the consent of the person being faked.

The report authors point out that laws and regulations are already in the works in both Europe and the U.S. However, they note, “many principles with wide support would be difficult to enforce.”

3. Who’s afraid of AI with a mind of its own?

• 51% think a sentient AI model is an inevitability; however,
• 64% don’t mind AI developers trying to create one.  

Meanwhile 38% are disquieted by AI’s reputed potential to “wipe out human civilization.” This might explain why people are more anxious than excited about the growth of AI overall, the authors quip.  

4. Among other emerging technologies, AI is setting the pace at shaping expectations of things to come. Some 74% expect AI to play a major role in societal change. Runners-up:  electric vehicles (69%), virtual reality (60%), augmented reality (52%) and non-fungible tokens/blockchain (34%).

5. When it comes to using AI, Millennials and Gen-Zers are blowing away their elders. One complicating factor in understanding these numbers, though, is that “the definition of an AI tool is extremely fuzzy,” the authors comment. “We asked respondents about dedicated AI services like ChatGPT or Midjourney. But many companies are adding AI features to established software.”

More:

“[A]s the joke goes, AI is whatever computers haven’t done yet, meaning yesterday’s AI is, simply, today’s expected features.”

The survey report’s authors are The Verge deputy editor Jacob Kastrenakes and senior reporter James Vincent. Full text and graphics here.

Buzzworthy developments of the past few days.

• China has been internally touting artificial general intelligence (AGI) as a vital means of stimulating the country’s economy. On Monday the People’s Daily newspaper ran the second piece in as many weeks promoting the Communist Party’s intensifying interest in tapping the technology to juice national productivity. AGI “will become an important driving force in the new wave of technological revolution and industrial transformation, with a major impact on people’s production and life,” according to coverage of the commentary published in the South China Morning Post. The latter is an English-language outlet published in Hong Kong by the Alibaba Group. Read the rest.
   
• The AI pharma-tech company Insilico Medicine is human-testing a drug that was discovered and designed by generative AI. The drug aims at treating lung disease. The clinical trial is taking place in China, where a real-world patient has already been dosed. Insilico CEO Alex Zhavoronkoff, PhD, tells the Financial Times the clinical milestone represents a moment of truth for the company. “But it is also a true test for AI,” he adds, “and the entire industry should be watching.”
   
• Startup Dandelion Health (New York) is offering free evaluations of healthcare AI algorithms. Free to users, anyway—the public service is being underwritten by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. The company is piloting the algorithm-auditing program with cardiology AI. The focus will be on analyzing clinical predictions based on electrocardiograms with a keen eye out for bias “across key racial, ethnic and geographic subgroups.” Announcement here, more on the program here.
   
• Outbound AI (Seattle) has raised $16 million to refine its tools for simplifying healthcare administrative tasks. The company started out developing AI agents for revenue cycle management but now is “poised to support healthcare knowledge workers across a variety of functional areas, settings and specialties,” says company founder and CEO Stead Burwell.
   
• WebMD’s Ignite operation (New York) is partnering with HIA Technologies (Pasadena, Calif.) to offer Ignite customers virtual health assistants for their patients. The digital content served up by the assistants combines WebMD content with care teams’ input while honoring end-users’ preferences. Announcement here.
   
• Generative AI sparked a wave of exuberance among stock pickers this year, but now many investors are chilling and watching. That’s a wise move, suggests one portfolio manager. “Do not buy just for the sake of gaining exposure,” the specialist tells Reuters. “It’s important to do your homework.”
   
• The FDA is seeking entrants for its Veterans Cardiac Health and AI Model Predictions (V-Champs) Challenge. Winners will show how they developed AI models to predict heart-failure outcomes—hospitalization, readmission, mortality—using synthetic veteran health records. The submission period runs through July 26. Details here.
   
• Shimadzu Corp. (Kyoto, Japan) is working with healthtech startup Shyld (Sunnyvale, Calif.) to bring AI-powered ultraviolet germ killing to hospitals. The technology is already in use at Stanford Medical Center. Announcement.
   
• Gradient Health (Raleigh) has closed a funding round good for $2.75 million. The company will use the windfall to build out “the world’s largest and most comprehensive annotated medical imaging library” for use by, among others, healthcare AI researchers. Announcement.