Consumers’ attitude towards AI with a focus on the role of government and media in Italy

Abstract

News and social media play an important role in public debates and this seems to be particularly relevant when associated to technology, because it influences firstly the degree of adoption and spread among the masses and also their cultural and information level. The spread of Artificial Intelligence has certainly not remained immune to these mechanisms since it has already established its dominance in the digital age and in everyday life. For this reason, we collected data through an experiment, proposing in a randomized manner two versions of an article in which two different perspectives on the use of ChatGPT within the university environment, one positive and one negative, are presented in a fictitious manner. The experiment was directed to students living in the North Italy, aged between 18 and 35 years old (N=260). The aim was to understand whether respondents, being subjected to different stimuli, produce different results in terms of attitude and perception towards AI and thus their degree of influence once exposed to a news item. In other words, we are willing to investigate the impact of the public discourse on the perception and consequently adoption of AI, making our first hypothesis that articles with a negative perspective have a negative impact on these aspects and on people behavior. Our aim is to increase understanding of attitudes towards AI adoption and to delve into the Italian context, characterized by unique events such as the ban of ChatGPT, in order to understand and explore how this has impacted on people. Our results suggests that people generally do not seem particularly influenced by the action and restrictions imposed by the government in Italy, as well as by media narratives. They exhibited a general positive attitude towards AI and a critical and selective approach towards information, indicating a more nuanced and less direct influence of media on their opinions about AI. Drawing on these findings, recommendations to those who wish to better understand consumers’ motivations and buying patterns in order to adapt strategies, policies to better meet consumers’ needs and improve the overall experience, as well as suggestions for future research, are provided.