POLL TAKEAWAYS: Latinos & Artificial Intelligence

Findings from “On Disinformation, Distrust, and Democracy: A DDIA Poll of U.S. Latinos” released June 25, 2024

See also

• Download this page as a PDF.

• DDIA Poll Takeaways - Latinos & Misinformation

• DDIA Poll Takeaways - Latinos & Trust

• DDIA Poll Report

• DDIA Poll Deck

The Digital Democracy Institute of the Americas (DDIA) partnered with YouGov to conduct a nationally representative poll of 3,000 U.S. Latino adults, from March 11 to April 26, 2024, in English and Spanish. 

The poll explored the four key topics below. This doc outlines takeaways from the issue area highlighted below:

1. Familiarity and belief in misinformation in the 2024 context, 

2. The role of political identities and values in relation to engagement with misinformation, 

3. Levels of trust in institutions and the electoral process, and 

4. Perceptions about artificial intelligence’s influence in the online world. 

Latinos and AI

• Gen-AI Use Among Latinos:
  

  • As of April 2024, a majority of Latinos in our survey were not regularly using generative-AI tools. 

    • Only 15% of Latinos surveyed were regularly using the most popular Generative AI tool, ChatGPT.

    • Other tools like Bing/Copilot Chat, Midjourney, Dall-E, and Stable Diffusion had even lower regular usage rates. 

  • AI is still an emerging technology for most Latinos.

• Attitudes Toward AI:
  

  • Latinos were largely ambivalent about AI - nearly half (47%) viewed AI as “neither positive nor negative.” 

    • The remaining responses were evenly split between seeing AI as positive (27%) or negative (27%).
      

  • Latinos who use AI on a regular basis feel more positive about its benefits for society, particularly in scientific discovery and productivity. 

• Attitudes Toward AI Regulation:
  

  • Latinos support the need for AI regulation, with many expressing concerns that AI technologies could lead to job displacement.

  • 68% of Latinos surveyed report that there is a “pressing need for stricter regulations and oversight of artificial intelligence technologies.”
    

• Perceptions About AI’s Impact on Elections:
  

  • Only 28% believed AI could be a “game changer” in the 2024 election.
    

  • The majority viewed AI’s political impact as either marginal or non-existent, with 41% agreeing that “The 2024 election will look just like every other election,” compared to 31% who saw AI playing a minor role through chatbots and personalized information.
    

• Perceptions About AI’s Impact on Jobs:

  • 66% of Latinos surveyed reported being “worried that artificial intelligence will take jobs away from ordinary people.”

    Looking to the Future: 

• A lack of exposure to AI may make it difficult for Latinos to fend off harmful content generated by these technologies. To address this, AI literacy training, akin to the adoption of digital literacy programs, could be crucial. Such training would equip individuals with the skills to critically evaluate AI-generated content, understand the implications of AI in various sectors, and effectively navigate the digital landscape. 

• As technology continues to evolve, fostering resilience through education and encouraging companies developing these technologies, both generative and non-generative, to be more mindful of societal impacts becomes increasingly important.

APPENDIX

GRAPHS

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