AI: What Do We Fear? What Do We Hope For? Perception of the Societal Impact of AI in a European Transnational Cross-Sectional Study

This paper presents the results of a qualitative transnational and cross-sectional study of the attitudes, fears, hopes and uses of AI in the framework of the KT4D HORIZON 2024 project 11The Knowledge Technologies for Democracy (KT4D) has received funding from the EU's Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement no. 101094302. It is a project that aims to foster civic participation in democracy by capitalising on the benefits of developments in AI & Big Data Technologies by developing and validating tools, guidelines and a Digital Democracy Lab Demonstrators platform as well as conducting multidisciplinary research on the use and perception of this cutting-edge technologies. More information can be found here: https://kt4democracy.eu/. It contributes to the literature exploring social factors behind the discourse and practice surrounding AI. Focus group meetings with laypersons in Spain and Poland explored the impact of AI on healthcare, entertainment, education, employment and democracy. The expected changes in healthcare were perceived as most positive, whereas the impact on civil rights and democracy brought up the most fears regarding privacy, misinformation, manipulation and invasive surveillance. We conclude that digital literacy levels and trust influence heavily in the attitudes towards AI. We also suggest that media narratives should not be underestimated as a determining factor in building attitudes towards technology.