Artificial intelligence: How political orientation shapes attitudes to AI

Artificial technologies are permeating societies and economies, shaping the way that people interact with each other and with organisations of all kinds, and how they go about their daily lives. There is not an agreed definition of what artificial intelligence (AI) means. But broadly, it describes the use of computers and digital technology to perform complex tasks commonly thought to require human reasoning and logic. AI systems typically analyse large amounts of data to draw insights or identify patterns to achieve specific goals. They can sometimes take actions autonomously, that is without human direction.

With the advent of Open AI’s Large Language Model (LLM), ChatGPT, at the end of 2022, followed by a whole range of LLMs (so-called ‘generative AI’) from other companies, people now interact with AI directly. LLMs, such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Llama, among others, are AI systems trained on text data that can generate natural-language-like responses to inputs or prompts (Council of the European Union, 2023). They can be used to find information or advice and to generate content in the form of images or text, allowing a whole new range of ways in which AI can have societal influence.