Discussion or discord? Reddit is an online social network where registered users post content and comments. Topics about AI commonly discussed on Reddit include consciousness and intelligence, development and training of models, uses in business, AI-inspired creativity, and potential societal impacts. Credit: Illustration by University of Rochester / Prompt and editing by Michael Osadciw using DALL-E
A survey of Reddit discussions following the launch of ChatGPT revealed that the tech community is more divided on attitudes towards artificial intelligence (AI) than the general public.
University of Rochester researchers, led by Jiebo Luo, professor of computer science and Albert Ahrendt Hopeman Professor of Engineering, used ChatGPT and natural language processing techniques to analyze themes and sentiment of 33,912 comments across 388 subreddits over a period of about six months after the AI-generated tool was released in November 2022. The results: Telematics and Information Science.
Reddit is an online social network where registered users can post content and comments, as well as in topic-specific forums called subreddits. Researchers studied comments about AI in technology subreddits such as “r/singularity” and “r/technology,” as well as non-technical subreddits such as “r/futurology” and “r/wallstreetbets.” Topics most frequently discussed about AI include consciousness and intelligence, development and training of models, uses in business, AI-inspired creativity, and AI’s potential impact on society.
But while comments on non-tech subreddits tended to portray AI as a positive force that can be harnessed for the betterment of society, opinions in the tech community were more divided.
“Opinions from the tech industry were more likely to be very positive or very negative than opinions from non-tech industries,” Luo said.
“I think the polarization of opinion is due to the people commenting and their personal knowledge of the issues. You see that even amongst big names in technology, people like Geoffrey Hinton, one of the pioneers of deep learning, are very pessimistic, and then there are people like Sam Altman. [the CEO of OpenAI] I’m much more optimistic.”
Discussions on non-technical Reddits tended to address social issues such as concerns about employment replacement and layoffs, while tech-centric subreddits featured more focused debates with strong opinions on one side or the other.
“On the positive side, members of the technical community have said it helps them be more productive, and they’re pleased with the open source culture in which Llama is developed. [Large Language Model Meta AI] or other open source language models,” said Hanjia Lyu ’20 (MS), a computer science doctoral student who worked on the study.
“Some of the concerns expressed by the technology community relate to issues such as the ethical implications and potential impacts on society arising from advances in AI, regulation and illusions.”
The authors say these inconsistencies indicate that more work is needed to demystify AI for the general public and address common misconceptions and fears. They call on policymakers, developers, educators, and researchers to develop clear, understandable explanations of AI technologies and their applications.
For more information:
Weihong Qi et al., “Expectations and Concerns in the Post-ChatGPT Era: Uncovering Public Perceptions of AI Through Social Media Analysis.” Telematics and Information Science (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.tele.2024.102158
Courtesy of University of Rochester
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