As world leaders continue to discuss their plans for advancing AI tech and policy, it’s clear that real people’s experiences are not being considered enough. So we want to know: What AI issues concern you most?

We’ll use these responses to address our AI concerns head-on and let our elected officials know that they need to pay attention to us and govern accordingly.

Some issues may include:

• Environmental harms: AI servers use massive amounts of energy, which still comes from fossil fuels – emitting greenhouse gases and requiring huge amounts of water to cool them. They also require rare minerals to build, meaning extensive mining. [1]

• Misinformation: AI is still not accurate, oftentimes producing “hallucinations,” or more simply, false information. [2]

• Bias: AI is created by humans. Humans have inherent biases, which are especially dangerous if they go unchecked. According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology, “AI systems can potentially increase the speed and scale of harmful biases and perpetuate or amplify harms to individuals or organizations.” [3]

• Critical thinking: A study from Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon recently found that when “used improperly,” AI can impact our ability to think critically, resulting “in the deterioration of cognitive faculties that ought to be preserved.” [4]

Fill out this form with your answers, and they may be used in our upcoming work.

Sources:

1. UN Environment Programme: AI has an environmental problem. Here’s what the world can do about that.

2. IBM: What are AI hallucinations?

3. NIST: AI Research - Identifying & Managing Harmful Bias in AI

4. Tech Crunch: Is AI making us dumb?