Generational differences in general attitudes towards AI and the level of trust in artificial faces

Abstract

With the increase of artificial intelligence in modern society, more people must now cooperate and interact with these systems. Cooperation and interaction with AI are dependent on the level of trust. The level of trust in AI is shaped by experiences over time. Whereas younger generations have grown up in a time where AI technologies were already increasingly prevalent and integrated into their daily lives, older generations had to adjust to the idea of AI. The question arises whether there are generational differences in the level of trust in AI. This study investigates whether the level of trust in AI is different for people from different generations. We compare two age groups on the level of trust in faces labelled as computer-generated and the level of trust in faces labelled as natural. The level of trust in faces labelled as computer- generated, was used to measure trust in AI. Additionally, we measured whether general attitudes towards AI and levels of generalized trust were different for people in the different age groups. This research expands existing knowledge on this topic by including the influence of individuals’ self-regulation on the level of trust in AI. As expected, we found that faces labelled as computer-generated were perceived as less trustworthy compared to faces labelled as natural. However, no significant differences were found between the two age groups in the general attitudes towards AI, and general attitudes did not predict trust in AI. Furthermore, no significant differences were found between the two age groups in the level of trust in AI. Finally, individuals’ self-regulation did not influence the relationship between age and the level of trust in AI. Our findings suggest that age alone might not be a strong predictor of trust in AI, as, familiarity, and previous experience with AI may be interconnected factors that influence the level of trust in AI. We recommend that other factors should be taken into consideration when investigating the relationship between age and trust in AI in future research. Furthermore, future research is recommended to include more dynamic tasks and control for potential outgroup effects to further explore the relationship between age, self-regulation, and trust in AI.