Concern and Enthusiasm for AI Across the Globe – The Role of Trust

Topic: Concern and Enthusiasm for AI Across the Globe. The Role of Trust

When: 22 October at 12.00-13.00

Where: Online - link by registration

Speaker: Kari Steen-Johnsen, Institute for Social Research, Oslo, Norway

Moderator: Anamaria Dutceac Segesten, European Studies, Lund University

Spoken language: English

Abstract

The introduction of generative AI (GenAI) has given a powerful boost for information, while raising concerns over risks and negative effects for society and democracy, including the problem for citizens to assess which information to trust. Based on a comparative survey of citizens from Brazil, Denmark, the Netherlands, the US., Japan and South Africa (N=1000 per country), collected in the spring of 2025, this study examines how enthusiasm and concern for the implementation of AI is associated with institutional and social trust. Trust could here be seen as a coping mechanism confronted with the risks and uncertainties linked to rapidly evolving AI and the societal transformations that may entail, and we assume a positive association between trust and enthusiasm.

Across the globe we find more concern than excitement for the implementation of AI, especially when it comes to consequences for democracy, but with country-specific variations. We consider how these attitudes are related to political trust, trust in the information landscape, legal institutions and science, as well as social trust, finding that only the two first forms of trust show a positive association with enthusiasm for AI. The study offers important first insights concerning citizens’ reception of GenAI across the globe, and the roles that institutional actors may play in different contexts.

Bio: Kari Steen-Johnsen is interested in the conditions for democratic participation in a broad sense, with an emphasis on the consequences of digitalisation and the rise of social media. Her research includes topics such as political mobilisation and organisation, citizens' news consumption and political knowledge, as well as public debate and freedom of expression. Prerequisites for and effects of trust, such as after terror and during the corona pandemic, have also been central to several of her projects. She is now involved in the KnowAI project studying how generative AI influences what citizens know, believe and trust.