AI for social good? Australian public attitudes towards AI and society - Survey Data
dataset
posted on 2020-11-17, 04:37 authored by Neil Selwyn, Beatriz Gallo CordobaBeatriz Gallo Cordoba, Mark andrejevic, Liz CampbellA nationally-representative survey of Australian adults aged
18 years and over (n=2019). A 73-item questionnaire was developed to gauge public opinions on the areas of
questioning outlined in the previous section. The survey comprised seven main sections (sections marked with
an asterisk include items adapted from Zhang and Dafoe 2019):
-Respondent background and demographics
-Support for the development of AI*
-Opinions regarding AI for social good – i.e. the application of AI to social, humanitarian and environmental
challenges;
-Opinions regarding societal challenges raised by AI – e.g. issues of privacy, fairness, equality and other
human rights*;
-Confidence in organizations to develop and manage AI in the best interests of the public*;
-Expectations for the future development of AI*;
-Hopes and futures regarding AI and society.
The study was conducted by WhereTo Research using participants from the Online Research Unit (ORU) online
panel cohort. The survey was administered to members of the ORU panel, and responses collected between
April 1st and April 24th 2020. This resulted in a sample of n=2019 adult residents eligible to vote Australia.
The final sample (see Table 1) was broadly representative of Australian population figures in terms of gender,
region and socio-economic status.
Data need to be weighted by age group to
correct for online panel deviation from the Australian population.
