We asked people all around the world to take a survey and tell us what they know and how they feel about artificial intelligence (AI). Over 66,800 people responded. Here’s what we learned.

Just over half of all respondents say they have “some knowledge" of AI. Only about 10% feel they are “well educated.”

Younger people are more likely to say they are knowledgeable about artificial intelligence.

People are most likely to say they are concerned (32%), curious (30%), and hopeful (27%) about artificial intelligence.

Where people live in the world had an impact on how they feel about AI.

Young people aren't nearly as concerned about AI as everyone else.

The top 3 words 19 - 24 year olds used to describe their feelings about AI are

1. Excited (43%)
2. Curious (40%)
3. Hopeful (32%).
   
   

Most people say they want AI to be way smarter than them.

Some other interesting finds around the question of how smart should AI be:

• Men (41%) were much more likely than women (31%) to say they wanted AI to be way smarter than them
• People who felt AI should be “dumb” said they felt Concerned (50%) and Nervous (24%) about AI.
• 46% of 25 - 44 year olds want AI to be way smarter than them, while only 37% of those 45+ want AI to be way smarter than them
• South Americans were most likely to say they want AI to be “Way Smarter Than Me”.

People are divided on whether they think artificial intelligence will make our lives better or worse.

24% of respondents said AI will make our lives better. 41% of respondents think AI will make our lives both better and worse. Only 10% of respondents think AI will only make our lives worse

It's interesting to look at who is most optimistic about AI.

Men (27%) are almost twice as optimistic as women (14%) that AI will make our lives better. Nearly half of South Americans (46%) are optimistic that AI is going to make their world better, making them the most positive region in the world. And young people 19 - 24 years old (35%) were the most likely age group to say AI will make the world better. Only 5% of this age group said they thought AI would make the world worse.

19% of respondents say they see AI in all facets of their lives. Only 3% didn’t see AI anywhere in their lives.

When asked what movie best shows where AI is headed in the future, most respondents picked I, Robot (10%). 10% of respondents also wrote in their own answer to this question. 1984 was the most popular write-in response.

Are people interested in learning more about artificial intelligence? Yes.

Only about 8% of respondents say they are not interested in learning more about AI.

• Respondents aged 19 - 44 were most likely to be “very interested” in learning more about AI (52%).
• Respondents 65 and over were most likely to say they are somewhat interested in learning more about AI (64%)
• South Americans (61%) and Africans (63%) said they were most interested in learning more about AI.

When we look at this data as a whole, what story does it start to tell us?

People are concerned about artificial intelligence. They are also curious and hopeful and excited for what it might bring--as long as it doesn’t bring about world destruction. People are also somewhat interested in learning more about AI. They might not be super excited about it yet, but they are open minded and aware that they need to pay attention. This is good.

Over the next couple of years, Mozilla plans to focus on making sure the world builds trustworthy AI. We want to help people understand that we all can and should have a say in when algorithms and computers are making decisions for us.

Mozilla believes in making data open and accessible to everyone. If you would like to go deeper into this survey data, here are links to dig in:

1. Raw survey data (25 mb)
2. Top Line Results (.pdf)

Mozilla is releasing this data to the public domain under CC0.